Shadow Fox
by Sigfried27
Summary: Naruto runs away feeling guilty about Sasuke's supposed death, what will he learn and where will he end up. Read it, because you never thought that there would be a NaruKin story with over a thousand reviews.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, no one on this site does

Note: I am trying to remain neutral for the most part when it comes to character portrayal, but I need to make Sakura somewhat harsh at the beginning, so sorry to any overzealous Sakura fans that might be reading this story to get the plot started.

**Shadow Fox**

The fight was over. Zabuza and Haku were dead, Gatoh was dead, and his hired thugs had all fled, but it was not a time of celebration for team 7, Sasuke was dead, killed by Haku. Naruto and Kakashi watched sadly as Sakura was crying over Sasuke's dead body. After what seems like hours, Kakashi managed to pull Sakura away from Sasuke's body and lifted up Sasuke's lifeless corpse.

"We will take Sasuke back home so he can have a proper funeral, but for now, I think that we need to rest." Kakashi said to his students, he then turned to Tazuna, "Do you mind if we stay at your house tonight."

"Not at all, take as much time as you need to rest before you leave, after all, you are the saviors of this village."

--------------

And so, the remainder of team 7 returned to Tazuna's home. It was very silent as everyone was fairly upset over what had come to pass; it was hard to accept that Sasuke was dead.

Suddenly, the silence was broken as Sakura asked the question that Naruto wanted to avoid as long as possible, "How did he die?"

Naruto tensed, he had been dreading this question, he didn't want to tell them that Sasuke had died protecting him, but they were his team, and he knew that they needed to hear the truth.

"While we were inside Haku's mirrors, we were both struggling to stay alive while Haku kept piercing us with his needles. Sasuke finally managed to activate his Sharingan but….while I was injured, Haku came after me and…Sasuke jumped in the way to protect me."

Silence fell over the room as the information sunk in when Sakura was once again the one to break the silence.

"So you're telling me that Sasuke is dead because he had to protect you?"

"…Yes" Naruto managed to softly reply.

"SO IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT SASUKE-KUN'S DEAD." Sakura screamed at Naruto.

"Sakura, that's enough, calm down." Kakashi said, trying to calm Sakura down.

"NO, IT'S ALL HIS FAULT" Sakura continued to scream, until she finally managed to lower her voice, "Why did we have to be paired with the Dead Last, if we had only received a team member who could protect himself, then Sasuke-kun would never have had to die. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE PROTECTED YOURSELF?"

"SAKURA, stop that right now." Kakashi was starting to get sterner in his tone.

"AND WHY DID SASUKE-KUN HAVE TO DIE TO PROTECT YOU, SASUKE WAS A GENIUS PRODIGY THAT EVERYONE LOVED, WHILE YOU WERE A WORTHLESS LOSER THAT EVERBODY HATES. YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE DEAD, NOT HIM."

That one hit Naruto hard, he was very upset that Sasuke had died protecting him, and being around Sakura was not helping his mood. So Naruto simply got up and wordlessly walked away from everybody, wanting some time to be alone.

Kakashi sighed and leaned back against the wall, he knew that Naruto would probably want some time to himself and so he let him go. However, he was very disappointed in Sakura's reaction. They were a team and the way that she had talked to Naruto was unacceptable. He sighed again and began to speak.

"Sakura, I don't care what how you felt about Sasuke, that was going to far. Naruto is your teammate and this was not his fault. Sasuke chose to protect Naruto, and yet you blame everything on Naruto, and even worse, you chose to drag his past treatment into it as well, and to top it all off, you wished for his death. You know nothing about Naruto and what he has been through, and to say something like that was taking things way to far. I don't care how you feel about his matter, Naruto is your teammate and you WILL apologize to him, do I make myself clear."

"Yes Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said looking down towards the ground.

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In all honesty, Sakura didn't know why she had reacted like that. She knew that Naruto was not at fault for what happened to Sasuke-kun, but she was just so upset at the moment that she had to take her anger out on somebody. What bothered her most though was that Sasuke-kun had protected him. Sasuke-kun had never shown any kind of caring towards anyone, she had tried so hard to make Sasuke-kun care, and yet he always pushed her away, yet here he was, dead because he gave his life to protect Naruto. Sakura was upset with her self though because she knew that Naruto had not deserved those last comments she had screamed at him. She knew that she needed to apologize to him without Kakashi telling her to, but right now she knew he was probably still very upset and so decided that she would apologize to him tomorrow.

--------------

Sakura's words had cut deeply to Naruto, he felt bad enough about Sasuke dieing, and now he knew that the girl that he loved hated him and wished that it was him who died, just like all of the other villagers. Naruto felt like a failure, a worthless excuse for a ninja. His first serious mission and his teammate died because he couldn't protect himself. He felt a bitter laughter escape from his mouth.

"_What kind of Hokage has to have people protect him, he has to protect the village, not be protected by it. I don't deserve to be a Hokage. Maybe people were always right about me, maybe I am a failure, and maybe I will never be able to be Hokage._"

Naruto didn't want to be a burden on his team. He didn't want Kakashi or Sakura dead because of him, because he was a failure, so he made his decision. He would leave tonight, leave the leaf village and live somewhere else. Sure he would probably be killed as a missing nin, but he really didn't care anymore. If he returned, he only returned to unending hatred, probably even more when the people find out that it was his fault that their "precious Uchiha" was dead. Sakura hated him too, hell, the only people who would care are Iruka, the old man, and maybe Kakashi. Besides, if the hunter nin killed him, then the Kyuubi would die also, so nothing bad would happen from him leaving. He still felt sad about his decision, but knew that it was for the best, so he decided to wait till everyone was asleep, then he would leave and never come back.

------------

Morning came quickly for the remainder of team 7 that was staying in Tazuna's home. Kakashi and Sakura got up and joined Tazuna and his family for breakfast. As they sat around the table eating their meal, Kakashi turned to Sakura.

"Did you apologize to Naruto yet?" Kakashi asked her, curious to why Naruto had not joined them for breakfast.

"No Kakashi-sensei, I thought he might want some time alone last night, so I thought I would do it today."

"Well go wake him up and do it now, once he has eaten breakfast, we will head back home."

"Yes Kakashi-sensei" Sakura replied, walking off to wake Naruto up.

Sakura knocked on the door to where Naruto was sleeping "_I wonder what I should say to him, what I said last night was pretty mean, I don't know if a simple 'I'm sorry' will cut it_" she shook her head and laughed "What am I talking about, this is Naruto, the guy practically worships me, of course he'll forgive me."

"_No response, he must still be asleep_" she thought "_Guess I might as well head on in_"

Sakura opened the door and looked around the room, she didn't see Naruto anywhere.

"_I wonder where he is_"

Sakura gave up on looking for him in his room and started to look around inside the house, then around the house, Naruto was nowhere to be found. Having no luck finding him, she went back to find Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, I can't find Naruto anywhere, have you seen him"

"He wasn't in his room?" Kakashi wondered where Naruto could be, he was beginning to get a bad feeling about this.

"I have checked almost everywhere, the only place I haven't checked is….." She couldn't say it, it made her too sad.

"It's possible that he could be in there, He probably feel's really guilty about what happened, he may have wanted to make to say his goodbyes." Kakashi got up from his chair and started walking away "I know it's hard for you, I'll go check to see if he is in there or not."

Kakashi made his way to Sasuke's room and let out a heavy sigh, yet another comrade that he lost, at the beginning of the mission, he told Sasuke that he would protect him with his life. He had failed.

Kakashi reached his hand out and opened the door. When he opened the door, he didn't see Naruto anywhere, he did however, see a note left on top of Sasuke's body. Feeling that whatever was in this note was a bad sign, Kakashi walked over and started reading the note.

_To my remaining teammates,_

_I am sorry to leave this note on Sasuke, I feel bad about leaving it here, but it is the only place that I can be sure that you will find it. Last night I thought a lot about everything that happened and I realized that Sakura was right, if I hadn't been on this team, then Sasuke wouldn't have had to protect me and may still have lived. I guess that everyone was right about me being useless all along. I decided that I don't want to be a burden to you guys or anyone else in the leaf anymore, so I've left. I would prefer not to be declared a missing nin, but if it must be done, then there's nothing I can do about it, it shouldn't take them too long to kill a dobe like me, and hey, if they kill me, then 'it' will be gone too. Tell Iruka and the old man that I'll miss them, but not to come look for me. Maybe I'll try to return one day if I get stronger, but I doubt that the villagers and council will let that happen, so this is probably goodbye forever. I hope that you will both be happy with your new team, and I hope they are more competent then me._

_Naruto_

Kakashi sat there staring at the letter for a long while, this was just too much, now he felt really depressed

"_Our first real mission and I get one member of my team killed and one runs away, everyone paired with me always ends up gone. Why can't I protect the people I care about. If only I hadn't left Naruto alone, maybe I could have talked him out of this."_

Kakashi was shaken out of his thoughts by the sudden gasps for air coming from the body below him.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi called out in shock

He looked over to see Sasuke with his eyes open, breathing heavily. Kakashi examined Sasuke and realized from his wounds that once again, he had failed to notice that the boy, Haku, had not killed, but put his target in a near death state.

"Sasuke, can you speak."

"Where am I" Sasuke asked in a weak, raspy voice.

"Hold on, I'll get you some water." Kakashi replied as he left the room.

As Kakashi was getting Sasuke his water, Sakura came up behind him.

"Kakashi-sensei, was Naruto in there."

The happiness that Kakashi felt over Sasuke's being alive was quickly dampened by the mention of Naruto.

"Sakura, come with me, there is some good news and bad news for you." Kakashi said with a small forced smile.

Sakura was not happy about having to enter Sasuke's room, but she listened to her sensei and followed him into Sasuke's room. Soon, a loud girlish squeal could be heard throughout the village.

"SASUKE-KUN, YOU'RE ALIVE"

"Of course I'm alive." Sasuke snorted "Now what happened, where's the Dobe?"

Sakura felt terribly guilty at the mention of "the Dobe," she had said all of those terrible things to him, and yet here Sasuke was, alive. Suddenly, she remembered the bad news that Kakashi had mentioned and her guilt turned to dread.

"Kakashi-sensei, I assume that this is the good news you mentioned, but what is the bad news." Sakura asked, afraid that this bad news had something to do with Naruto.

Kakashi simply pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to Sakura, "Read this."

As Sakura read through the note, her eyes widened in shock and her guilt suddenly felt much worse. She knew that this was all her fault, she didn't understand all the details of the letter, particularly wondering what the "it" was that he referred to, but she knew that he was close to breaking inside, and she gave him the final push. She felt her knees give out beneath her and started sobbing uncontrollably.

"_This is all my fault, why did I have to say all that to him out of anger, why didn't I apologize last night, I could have prevented this….and now he's gone"_

Sasuke watched the scene before him in confusion, he had no idea what was going on, but apparently it had something to do with Naruto.

"Let me see that note." He demanded

Sasuke read through the letter and felt his hands clench together tightly. He was gone, how could the Dobe just up and leave them like that. He read through the note over and over again, trying to figure out why he would leave them. As he read again, he noticed a mention about something that Sakura had said to him, so he turned his head towards her.

"What did you say to him." He asked in a cold voice.

Sakura looked at the floor ashamed, She didn't want to tell him, but she had to, so she looked at him and told him "I told him that I wished that we didn't have to be teamed with the dead last so that you wouldn't have to die protecting him, and then I sort of told him that…." Her voice began to trail off "I got mad and asked him why a genius that people loved died instead of a loser that everybody hates, and wished that it was him that died instead." She finished weakly, feeling horrible because of what she had said to him.

Sasuke glared at her. He may not have always liked Naruto, but he was one of the only people who truly knew what it felt like to be alone. He was one of the only people who knew how it truly felt. How could she have said something like that to a boy who had nobody in his life.

"Why did you do that?" Sasuke asked her in a cold tone of voice.

"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun, I thought that you were dead, and I was upset, and I ended up taking it out on Naruto." Sakura pleaded with Sasuke not to be mad at her.

"We have to go find him." Sasuke said trying to get out of his bed.

"No" was the stern reply from Kakashi.

"But why not" Sakura pleaded "He's our teammate, and we need to find him, and I need to tell him that I am sorry."

"Sasuke is in no shape to leave at the moment, we will need to rest here for a while till Sasuke is back on his feet again."

Sasuke wanted to protest, but he knew that he was in no shape to travel right now, so he let the argument drop. Sakura was more reluctant to quit, but soon saw the reasoning and also let the argument drop.

"We will wait till Sasuke is better, and then we will return to the leaf to report the mission success. After that, we will speak to the Hokage about this matter and ask if we can go out on a search." Kakashi told his team.

"But what if he is declared a missing nin" Sakura asked, worried that if they returned with this information, that Naruto would be in danger.

"Naruto knew that was likely when he chose to leave, as much as I don't want to see him killed, this is what he chose to do, and I am not too sure that we would be able to convince him to come back right now. He told us that he might return someday when he got stronger, so I think the best thing we can do is try to work with the Hokage to keep him off the missing nin list and leave the option for him to return to the village."

What Kakashi had said made sense to the two of them, although they weren't happy with the thought of leaving Naruto out there, they knew that this was the best thing that they could do for him right now.

Meanwhile, further into the forest, moving away from the Wave country and the city of Konoha, things were about to take a large turn for Naruto.

A/N: Yes, thus far this story has nothing to do with its title, however, that will change next chapter. I realize the story may seem slow now, and my thoughts flow much better then my words and I don't describe things too well, but I figured what the hell, why not write a story. And in doing so, I am now falling into the epitome of nerdom, but oh well, I don't really care that much.

Basically, I got tired of looking through the stories nowadays and the choices all being either 1.) yaoi 2.) Sasu/Saku; Naru/Hina; Neji/Ten; Shika/Ino, those pairings all bore me. 3.) Self-insertions: Don't get me started….I could rant on about this for a long time, personally, I blame the hopeless fan girls for this one (I actually blame them for most of these, but this one in particular). 4.) Naruto/Harrypotter crossovers…… that's just stupid. 5.) High school fics and other random fics of the like….they just suck.

Well, enough of my ranting (though I could do much more, but then I would have to deal with lots of angry fan girl hate mail, I already had to cut that rant out to avoid some of it) basically, feel free to state whatever you feel about this fic, however, I am just going to ignore reviews about "That's not cannon" or "that character wouldn't really act like that" or "That couldn't really happen" or "that was spelled wrong" honestly if you are going to review, make it significant (that means avoid the simple "I like this fic" reviews too). As for any angry hate reviews about my personality if you get offended, well, I might laugh at the first 3-4, but after that I will probably just ignore them, so I'd say don't bother with those either, I am a sarcastic bastard and I know it, tough luck.

Anyway, all rants and insults aside (but I do so love insulting people), I hope you enjoy this story as one of the few Naru/Kin stories out there, I like any Naru/het pairing that is NOT Hinata, so I'll probably write others eventually if people actually enjoy this one.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: To anyone who read about halfway through this chapter and quits thinking that it is another "Kyuubi trains Naruto" fic, then you are wrong, so don't think that. That's all I really have to say right now, enjoy.

**Bold: **Kyuubi

**_Bold and italics: _**?

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto was rather annoyed at the moment. Sure, leaving the village seemed like a good idea at first, but it was soon after leaving that Naruto realized that he had nowhere to go. And that was how he found himself aimlessly wandering through the woods, thoroughly pissed.

"WHERE THE HELL AM I!" Naruto's scream tore through the forest, scattering many birds and small animals.

"Heh, maybe I should just stay here and wait for the hunter nin to come after me and finish me off."

With his thoughts darkening, he decided that wandering through the forest aimlessly was not going to get him anywhere, so he found a place to set up camp, and soon fell into sleeps blissful embrace.

He awoke to find himself not in the forest where he fell asleep, but in a damp, dark sewer (who could have guessed). He looked down the foreboding corridor and thought that it would be best not to go down it, but as he turned around, he noticed that it was a dead and. With a sigh of resignation, he began his trek down the corridor.

After a short while, he was getting fairly tired of walking down this corridor, so he was very glad to see that the corridor was beginning to expand into a room. He ran into the room, but soon stopped as he saw a rather large set of bars separating where he was from the other side of the room.

"Just great, I spend all that time walking down that path to get to this room, and now I CANT EVEN KEEP GOING." Naruto was once again beyond pissed. "A dead end behind me and a giant set of bars in front of me, how the hell am I supposed to get out, and more importantly WHERE THE HELL AM I."

"**Bah, stop yelling pathetic human, you hurt my ears." **A booming voice could be heard from behind the bars.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHERE AM I." Naruto continued to scream. He approached the bars and looked inside, only to be met with a giant red eye. "GAAAHH, WHAT THE HELL."

"**Didn't I tell you to stop screaming, to think that I have to spend all of my days trapped inside an idiot like you." **The voice retorted in a not too pleased tone.

"…..Inside me?" Naruto may not have been the brightest of all of the students his age, but he was beginning to figure out what exactly was going on "…your Kyuubi, aren't you."

"**Well what do you know, the fool finally begins to figure it out on his own, not bad for a primitive monkey. Yes, I am the Almighty Kyuubi, Lord of all Youkai." **

Naruto did not take very well to being called a primitive monkey, he would not let anyone get away with something like that, even if it was the "Almighty Kyuubi"

"Primitive monkey? Who are you calling a primitive monkey, we humans are anything but primitive, I bet that the "Almighty Kyuubi " didn't even have electricity in his "Great Kyuubi Lair."

"**Quiet monkey, I know all about your human electricity, however a fox has no need for electricity, and I call you primitive because your knowledge pales in comparison to my millennia of knowledge."**

"Pssh, yeah right. Well, who cares about you "millennia of knowledge", we humans have something that you will never have"

As Naruto said this, he was knocked back for the force of the Kyuubi's laughter.

"**Are you going to tell me that that one thing that you have that I don't is a soul, because if that's the case, then I have heard that many times before."**

"No, actually, I was going to say opposable thumbs"

Kyuubi's face froze in shock as he looked down at his paws and growled something that sounded suspiciously like "**Stupid humans lording their opposable thumbs over me, I'll destroy them all."**

Naruto was trying hard to fight back laughter at this point, the almighty Kyuubi had a sore spot about not having opposable thumbs, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"Man, how can so many people be afraid of a demon that lacks opposable thumbs, hell, even Pandas have opposable thumbs, a simple Panda is more advanced then the 'Lord of all Youkai.'"

"**SILENCE BRAT, I WILL NOT STAND FOR ANYMORE OF THIS. I am a demon lord, I shall be shown respect."**

"Pipe down furball, just tell me what I am doing here already."

Kyuubi grumbled at the lack of respect "**If it weren't for this damn seal, I would kill you, however as it stands, if you die, I die, and that is unacceptable. I brought you here because I heard your little pity party about waiting for those hunter nin to come and kill you, so I brought you here to tell you to shape up and move on, because I will not be letting you die.**"

Naruto got a mischievous smirk on his face that he carefully hid from the kyuubi as he spoke up.

"Gee, I don't know Kyuubi, I am really depressed right now, hell, I may even kill myself" Naruto was trying desperately to conceal his smirk at this point.

"**I will not let the happen whelp, so get these suicidal thoughts out of your head.**"

"I don't know, it is hard Kyuubi, I feel so sad now I don't think that anything can cheer me up…..On second thought, there may be one thing that could cheer me up."

Kyuubi rolled his eyes, he was a demon, he was not supposed to cheer people up, but this was for his survival, so he swallowed his pride (which was quite a mouthful) and spoke "**And what would that be?**"

"Well, I might cheer up if I saw the mighty Kyuubi, king of all Youkai dance for me" The smirk on Naruto's face could no longer be suppressed.

"**NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.**" Kyuubi may have been willing to swallow some of his pride, but this was just asking far too much "**There is no way that I will dance for some primitive monkey.**"

"Well Kyuubi, now I have nothing to cheer me up from my depression, I guess that I will just have to kill myself."

"**You wouldn't kill yourself over something as trivial as this.**"

"Hey, I am depressed, you never know what I will do."

Kyuubi looked for any signs of lying on his face, but could find no traces of lying on the boys face. God he hated this, but he had to live, and he would do whatever it took to survive, and so, Kyuubi began to shift his weight slightly back and forth in a clumsy rhythmic motion.

"**Kami this is humiliating." **Kyuubi growled under his breath.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore, seeing the Almighty Kyuubi's clumsy dance was just too funny, he was rolling on the floor, finding it difficult to breathe through the laughter. By this point, Kyuubi had stopped dancing and was mumbling death threats.

"Well, let it be known that Naruto Uzumaki has the power to even command the great Kyuubi to dance for him."

"**SHUT UP FOOL, if you continue like this, then I will not share with you the power I planned to help you obtain.**"

Naruto instantly sat up at this prospect. He really wanted to get stronger so that he would be able to protect himself and others, something he didn't have the strength to do before.

"Alright, I am sorry fox, now what is this power you want to help me with, is it yours?"

Kyuubi scoffed "**You can hardly handle a fraction of my power, it would rip you to shreds. No, I plan to find another means of power for you at this time.**"

"And what would that be" Naruto was hardly able to contain his excitement at this prospect.

"**You will find out when you get to where I am sending you, After you used some of my Chakra fighting on that bridge, I can now keep a short term mental link to give you quick instructions, when you wake up, I will tell you where to go."**

"That's great…but how do I wake up?" Naruto asked.

Kyuubi sighed and sent Naruto back into consciousness, he awoke to find that it was now morning and wondered if it was all a dream.

"**No**" the booming voice of the Kyuubi sounded through his head "**Now go where I tell you.**"

And so, after 3 days of travel, Naruto finally arrived at the place specified by the Kyuubi. As he wandered around the clearing, he wondered what was here tat would help him gain more power. It was then that he noticed the small cave beside the clearing. He went to the cave and looked inside, but as he did so, he felt his legs unable to move. He looked down to find his legs wrapped in shadows and held tightly to the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL" Naruto yelled, he was both confused and angry about the fact that his legs were now held in place by shadows.

"**_What does a human want with us._**" Came a voice from deep inside the cave.

"I am not sure yet, mostly because I don't know who you are or what I am here for, I was just told to come here so I can get stronger." Naruto answered, wondering what indeed he wanted from them, not knowing who they were.

As he was thinking about this, he began to take notice of something emerging from the shadows, it was a fox, but not like any fox that he had ever seen, this fox was a dark black color with only a small bit of white on its tail and its face.

"**_Few humans even know of our existence, so we would like to know how you found out about us._**" The fox asked him

"HOLY HELL, THE FOX JUST TALKED"

"**Idiot, have you forgotten that you spent a whole night talking to a giant fox sealed inside of you."**

"Heh, oh yeah, I guess that talking foxes aren't as uncommon as I thought" Naruto grinned sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck.

"**_Kid, who the hell are you talking to._**" The black fox asked curiously.

"Heh, sorry about that. I guess I can trust telling you who sent me since you yourself are a fox. I am the human vessel for the demon lord Kyuubi, he told me to come here so that I could get stronger."

"**_Well, that's a fairly interesting turn of events, however, it seems the Kyuubi has forgotten that we shadow fox have left the demon fox clan._**" The black fox said with a scoff.

Naruto was very confused now "What the hell is a shadow fox, and why would you have left this 'demon fox clan.'"

"**_Well, to answer your first question we shadow fox are a race of demon fox, and as for what we can do, look down at your feet._**"

Naruto looked down at his feet, only to see that the shadows that had bound his leg melt away, only to reform as more black foxes.

"HOLY HELL"

The black fox that he had been talking with merely laughed at the boy's reaction and spoke up again "**_as for your second question, you should ask Kyuubi about why we left._**"

Kyuubi, having heard this spoke up in Naruto's mind "**The shadow fox were a race of demon fox, part of the demon fox clan led by me. However, the shadow fox began to get attached to a clan of human ninja and soon began to assist them in their endeavors, much like that Inuzuka clan back in the leaf village and their dogs. This act did not sit well with the rest of the demon fox clan, and so the shadow fox were given the choice to stay with us or go with them. They chose to stay with the human clan, and so were exiled from the demon fox clan. However, soon after the left the demon fox clan, their human clan was attacked and all of its members were destroyed, and so the shadow fox were left with nowhere to go."**

"Well, that kinda sucks, so why did we come here"

"**I was hoping to convince them to help you much the same way they did with their old human clan, they may have left us, but they were still rather strong, their bodies makeup is very similar to those kage bunshin of yours, so they can melt into the shadows rather easily, as well as other shadow techniques they posses."**

"Kick ass, that sounds awesome. So how do we get them to help me."

"**That is your problem not mine, find some way to do it, I can't hold the mental link much longer, so your on your own.**"

Naruto grumbled about a "useless fox" but decided to move further into the cave.

"**_Why are you still here"_** asked the shadow fox that seemed to be the leader.

"Kyuubi told me about the way that you all used to help out a clan of humans, I was wondering if you could reach a similar arrangement with me."

The shadow fox in the cave began to laugh as the leader turned towards Naruto.

"**_We had a great deal of respect for our old human partners, you are nothing like them. You come here and ask us to give you power without doing any work. You want everything given to you. We are no longer bound to the Kyuubi's command, so he can not force us to help you. Besides, how can you hope to be one with the shadows when you when your clothes and hair and excessively bright._**"

Naruto was pissed now, who were these foxes to judge what he wanted to be given.

"Shut the hell up, I came here to ask for your help because Kyuubi told me to come here to get power, so I came here and asked, if you want me to work for it, then I will do whatever you tell me to do to gain your help. And for the record, I've never been handed a damn thing in my life, unless you count the hatred of a whole village. You think that a village would be kind to a child with a demon inside them? No, I lived with constant hatred, I've been alone for almost my whole life, so don't you dare tell me that I want to be given everything. And as for my clothes, this is all that I was given as a child, no one would let a 'demon child' have a decent set of clothes."

The shadow fox began to look at Naruto with a bit more respect, and they all turned to face their leader.

"**_I apologize for my words, however we still don't know how hard you will actually work, so I purpose this, you let us begin your training here for 2 months, and if you show your determination to get stronger and to continue our training wherever you may go, then we will agree to help you._**

"No problem, if I can get make the 'Almighty Kyuubi' dance for me, then I can handle this training."

Naruto suddenly felt a pain in his stomach and he looked down towards his seal "you settle down fox, don't get so upset."

The shadow fox leader saw this exchange and began to chuckle along with the rest of the shadow fox.

"**_I think that we are going to get along just fine boy, what's your name._**"

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto stated proudly

"**_Well Naruto, let's get started on your training then, shall we?_**"

"Yes sir." Naruto called out, happy to begin his training to get stronger.

----------

Two months had passed, and those who had known Naruto once before would be hard pressed to recognize him now.

As part of his training with the shadow fox clan, Naruto had agreed to a change in wardrobe and the dying of his hair. He now wore long black pants and a simple black ninja gi (I'm not big on clothing descriptions, don't even technically know if this is real, but the point is, he wears all black, you can picture his clothes however you want). On his face he wore a black mask to cover up his face from his neck to slightly above his lips. His hair had also been dyed black, in fact, the only bright aspect of his person was his shining bright blue eyes which stood as a hauntingly sharp contrast to the black which covered his very being. During his training, he had been accompanied by a single shadow fox to a village to get his hair dyed and an all black outfit.

Naruto's training had been not so much about strength, but more about stealth. He was trained to become quieter, to make his presence less known, but mostly, he was trained to work with the shadows in a manner similar to the shadow fox clan. The leader of the shadow fox had saved a scroll containing the shadow techniques of their old human partners. He was no longer the loud and exuberant boy that he had once been, he was now well on his way to, as the shadow fox clan had called it, "being one with the shadows."

However, his training was now over and he had left to wander the countryside, for while he enjoyed staying with the shadow fox clan, he may now be a missing nin, and he did not want the hunter nin to find the shadow fox clan. The shadow fox had deemed him worthy of their help, and as such, they sent him of with the company of a young shadow kit as his helper, he was told that it was best if he worked with a new kit so that they could develop their cooperation more easily.

He had been traveling for a number of days and was growing very tired of wandering. He was had traveled to exhaustion and soon collapsed on the ground.

As he lay on the ground, asleep from exhaustion, he was soon discovered by two ninja. The ninja approached him, only to be faced with a growling black fox kit. At the sound of his partners growling, Naruto awoke to see the two ninja, both of whom had headbands the symbol of a musical note.

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Well, now the shadow fox are revealed. I always enjoyed in fics where Naruto used shadows or where he used foxes, so I just decided to combine the two. So now Naruto has been found by the hidden sound village. No, this will not end up as an evil Naruto fic, so don't sorry about that. And now that Naruto is in the sound village, we can start with the Naru/Kin scenes. I also tried my attempt at humor with his Kyuubi exchange, but I don't know how many people will actually find it amusing. I was just always amused at the thought of kyuubi being upset about not having opposable thumbs. Random, but who cares. Also, the fox accompanying Naruto will have a name, i just planned on having a flashback later. Anyway, no ranting for this chapter, so the fan girls can have a break from the insults.

I don't need reviews for this story, but I would like to know if people actually like it. I won't stop writing it if I don't get reviews, but I would just like to know if people actually enjoy this story


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: wow, these reviews make me happy, I had no idea how many I would get, but I figured most of what I would get is hate mail from the angry fan girls (do you sense a pattern here), I didn't think I would have some many people enthusiastically agreeing with my rants. Some people seem to be concerned about the whole "Naruto in the sound village" thing. Well, like I said, this will not be an evil Naruto fic; however I don't want to say much because I don't like to tell how things will turn out. He believes that he is a missing nin, he doesn't really have anywhere else to go, and as he wanders he just kind of ends up there. Anyway, I appreciate the reviews and now, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked, his speech hardly comprehensible due to the fact that he had just been woken up.

Neither ninja answered as they both appeared to be looking him over, practically appraising him.

It was a short while into this appraisal that Naruto finally noticed that they were wearing headbands that signified them as ninja.

"……SHIT, are you two from Konoha." Naruto asked as he readied his hands to form a seal.

The ninja rolled their eyes as one of them spoke up.

"Look at our headbands, does this look like the Konoha symbol to you." The ninja said as he pointed to the musical note.

"I guess that makes sense, but still, who the hell are you? I have never seen that symbol before."

"We are both from the hidden village of the sound, we are a fairly new village so it is not surprising that you haven't heard of us. But anyway, what about you, it seems to me that you are probably a missing nin from Konoha from the way you reacted towards us a second ago."

Naruto cursed his impulsive questioning. Barely two months after he left, and now he was probably going to be executed, but he wasn't just going to let them take him that easy. He began to form the seals for his shadow melt jutsu, a jutsu that let him merge into the shadows, much like the shadow fox did.

However, before he managed to finish his jutsu, one of the ninja had appeared behind him and grasped his arms to interrupt the hand seals.

"Now just hold on a second, we are not your enemies here." The Ninja that held his arms told him.

"Bullshit, you just want to eliminate me to get the bounty, why should I listen to you." Naruto spat out towards his captors.

At the moment, Naruto really didn't care much about what they were saying, he was just trying to hold their attention, for the ninja had focused do much on him, they had forgotten about a little black fox which they felt was nothing more than a common fox of a different color. The little fox kit had managed to merge with the shadows and was set to strike these ninja when the opportunity arose.

"You don't have to believe us if you don't want, but we can offer you a home."

"What do you mean, I am a missing nin, what reason do you have to let me in your village."

"Kid, you don't know much about the hidden sound village. The village accepts missing nin and gives them a home, they in turn fight for us and we become stronger. We have let in far more powerful missing nin then you, so why would we worry about letting you in."

Naruto thought this over in his head for a moment. He had nowhere to go, and as far as he could tell, he had nothing to lose from this. He could not see any hint of lying on the faces of these two ninja, but they were ninja, he couldn't be sure. However, he felt that he had one ace up his sleeve. Hardly anyone knew about the shadow fox clan, so felt that he could have his partner follow him in the shadows, and if anything went wrong, he could strike and escape through the shadows.

"Well, I suppose that if you guys are offering me a home, then I suppose that I can't refuse."

Naruto gave a look and a nod towards his partner as he walked off with these two ninja.

He soon found himself in front of a small gate for a medium sized village, so different from the large city of Konoha with its large gate. The atmosphere seemed much more peaceful here and Naruto was thankful for it. While he still held some of his past energy, his training with the shadow fox clan had made him appreciate the calm and tranquility of this smaller town as opposed to his old home.

"Follow us to meet our leader, he will explain more about this village to you." One of the Ninjas told Naruto, and so they continued on towards the sound equivalent of a kage tower.

--------------

Meanwhile, in said tower, Orochimaru was contemplating as he stared out of his window. The Chuunin exams were going to occur in a few months, soon he would have his revenge, along with his new host body. Oh the power that he would obtain after possessing the Sharingan, he could hardly contain his evil cackle.

"Finally, after all of these years, revenge shall be mine."

Before he could start his evil cackling, however, as he was soon informed that one of his subordinates had a matter to discuss with him. Usually, he could have cared less about some random subordinate wanted him for, but today he was feeling especially giddy (scary thought huh?), plus, he just had a feeling that something else good was going to happen today.

"Orochimaru-sama, we have a matter which calls for your decision." The random sound ninja said as he got on one knee and bowed down before Orochimaru, for while most villages don't need to bow down like this for their kage, the sound ninja did for fear that they might be sacrificed to his snakes.

"And what is so important of this matter that you need my involvement" Orochimaru said in a stern voice. He may have been happy, but like hell if he could let his subordinates know that, he was Orochimaru dammit, he could not be portrayed as happy.

"We have found a ninja within our borders. He appears to be a missing nin from Konoha based on his actions towards us. He has shown an interest in joining us here in the sound village."

Now while he may not have looked it, Orochimaru had a bit of a soft spot for missing nin from Konoha. Not much of one, but a small one. He was rarely hesitant to accept any missing nin from Konoha, however, once they were part of the sound, he was as cruel towards them as he was towards others, but at least they had refuge from the hunter nin. Besides, it was always nice to have ninja with hatred towards the leaf village to join in the attack. He began to feel another evil cackle building up.

"Send him in to see me."

The ninja bowed again and left the room. Orochimaru smirked as he saw the ninja return, but his smirk was replaced with a look of annoyance as he saw that this missing nin was nothing more than a child, probably no higher than a genin.

"What is the meaning of this, you waste my time by bringing in a child. I should offer you up to Manda right now for this insolence!"

Naruto began to wonder whether or not joining this village was really a good idea as the ninja who brought him in cowered back in fear.

"Forgive me Orochimaru-sama, I merely felt that with the 'upcoming situation' we could use as many ninja as we could muster, regardless of rank."

Most of the sound ninja were not yet aware of the upcoming war, so as to prevent any possible information leaks, however the two ninja who found Naruto happened to be ninja assigned to look for missing nin and convince them to join the ranks of the sound to build up their numbers. The ninja didn't really believe that Naruto would be of any use, and Orochimaru caught on to what this ninja meant as he listened to his pleas. He was saying that they could use Naruto as cannon fodder during the attack. Orochimaru thought about this and figured 'what the hell, why not. Having more ninja, no matter how weak, couldn't really hurt.

However, Orochimaru was unsure of whether to trust this boy or not, because as the boy entered his office, he felt an extra presence in his office. He felt that this boy might be being used in order to discover something, and that this extra presence was to ensure that nothing happened to him. He decided that he would play along for now and wait for the right moment to make this other intruder reveal himself.

"I see your point. So tell me, what is your name boy."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, missing nin of the leaf. I was told that this village happens to house missing nin such as myself." Naruto replied as he gave a small bow to Orochimaru. He didn't really like bowing to this man, something about him just didn't feel right, but he needed a place to say, and so for now, he would show respect.

'Uzumaki Naruto, that name sounds familiar for some reason.' Orochimaru thought to himself as he gazed into the boy's eyes. His face suddenly froze with a sudden realization. 'Those eyes, they are just like _his_. The hair color is wrong, but I suppose if he _is _a missing nin, he may have dyed it to change his appearance. Kabuto did say that he managed to find reports that he had a son in the records of Konoha, if that's the case, then he also…..'

"Naruto, I need you to take off your mask and let me see your face."

Naruto hesitated for a second. This man was a kage equivalent, so he was probably well informed. He might be able to figure out what he was if he took off his mask, and then he would be sent right back out into the woods…if not killed.

"If it is not asking too much, I would rather not."

"If you want to stay in this village, you WILL take your mask off so that I can see your face."

Naruto gave a sigh of resignation as he reached up towards his face and pulled his mask down, reveal a set of whisker marks on each cheek.

'It IS him, this boy, he is the kyuubi vessel. This is a much greater find then I first anticipated. The villagers in Konoha must have run him out. He will inevitably have a great hatred towards them.' Orochimaru thought. He was getting very excited again, there was no way that Konoha would ever survive an attack from 2 demon vessels.

"Well Naruto-kun, I am glad to see that you wish to join our village, but one problem still remains." Orochimaru said as he pulled out a kunai and hid it from Naruto's view, his back facing Naruto.

All that was left to discover was the identity of the unknown presence in his office that had followed Naruto. He quickly turned around and hurled the kunai towards Naruto's chest. Before the kunai hit Naruto, a wall of shadow suddenly shot up in front of him, effectively stopping the kunai. The wall of shadow quickly swirled back downwards and once more took on the form of a fox. Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock as he looked upon this new development.

'There's no way, he also poses the assistance of the shadow fox. This boy is indeed impressive, he has the ultimate potential in stealth thanks to the shadow fox, in strength thanks to Kyuubi, and in speed thanks to _him_ (really, has anyone NOT guessed this by now). He would make an excellent vessel, but as long as Kyuubi was in the boy, that was not possible. Damn, how come all of my first choices of vessels are flawed so that I can't posses them. First Kimmimaro and his sickness, and now Naruto, GRAHHH. Well, at least I still have Sasuke-kun, at least I can posses him. Still, it would have been nice to destroy Konoha using _his _own son's body.'

"**_You will not hurt Naruto."_** The fox stated in a low growl.

Orochimaru held up his hands in a pacifying manner in an attempt to calm the two down. Now that he knew what power Naruto truly possessed, he couldn't let him get away.

"Hold on a second, give me a chance to explain myself. I know that it was wrong of me to throw a kunai at you like that, but you really should have told me about your partner here in the first place Naruto, when I sensed his presence, I thought that you might have been a spy."

Naruto thought about this for a moment before he decided that it was a logical conclusion for him to draw, he _was _hiding the fox from them in case things went wrong.

"Forgive me Orochimaru-sama (he picked up the name from the conversation earlier), but before I had come here, I had not met you and was not sure if I could trust you, he happened to be my escape plan."

Orochimaru laughed at this and replied "Well, I suppose that you did have no reason to trust me, but tell me, how did you manage to gain the trust of the shadow fox, much less find them. Did Kyuubi help you with that."

Naruto flinched, the man knew about the Kyuubi, what should he do, the man didn't seem like he was upset, but he couldn't be sure.

Orochimaru sensed Naruto's panic and tried to calm him down.

"Do not worry Naruto, you may have had a hard life before, but here you will find people here much more understanding about things like that. We respect power, no matter what the source. However, if you are still worried, then I can make sure that no one knows about the Kyuubi inside of you."

Naruto relaxed at those words, he wondered if he could finally call a place home.

"I would rather that you kept this a secret for now, I have not met the people and thus would like to see for myself what they are really like before I let them know anything."

"That is understandable, I will keep your secret until you say otherwise, now could you please tell me about the shadow fox, no human has ever seen one for over 30 years."

"Well, you're partially correct in your assumption, the Kyuubi led me to where the Shadow fox were staying, but it seems that they took a liking to my personality, so after some training, they agreed to help me."

"I see, I don't suppose you would lead us to them to help our village?"

The fox scoffed at this and replied "**_The Shadow Fox clan will only assist Naruto and any of his kin _**(heh, ironic)."

"I am sorry Orochimaru-sama, but I promised that I would not give away their location to anyone, that is why I didn't stay with them, I didn't want the hunter nin from Konoha to find them."

Orochimaru was slightly upset, but figured that the boy would not tell him.

"That's alright Naruto-kun, I understand. So now that we have had this meeting, how would you like to stay here and become a sound ninja."

Naruto smiled at the offer and replied "I would like that very much sir."

"Very well, I will arrange to have you put on a genin team, a will send a ninja to pick you up tomorrow morning to take you to where you will be trained. Right now I will have one of my ninja lead you to where you the apartment that you will be staying in."

A short while later, another sound ninja appeared to take Naruto to his apartment. Naruto gave a bow to Orochimaru and then left with his fox partner in tow.

Once Naruto had left, Orochimaru turned back to his window with a large smirk on his face. The leaf stood no chance of survival now, and now he didn't have to worry about the sand turning on him someday and using their demon against him, for now he had his own, one with the utmost potential in every area. He could no longer hold his evil cackling back, and the whole tower was filled with the sound of evil cackling "kukukukuku."

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**A/N**: Ah, yet another chapter. This one was not very exciting, but I had to explain some about his acceptance into the sound village. Sorry to those of you who think Orochimaru may be a bit too cheerful and not evil enough, but he knows that he needs to keep up an act to get Naruto to stay. And for those of you who wonder if Naruto will be getting the cursed seal so that he can be controlled, the answer is no. Orochimaru is an arrogant twit who is convinced that Naruto left the leaf because of the villager's treatment, so he believes that Naruto hates the leaf and thus does not need to be controlled. Next chapter, Naruto will meet his new team (guess who they are…..no really guess, there is only one known team, and I am not good with OC's) the little shadow fox will get a name, yea.

Now normally I disapprove of voting because 1. It hinders the author in writing and 2. Voting is usually for pairings, and thus ends in Naru/Hina AGAIN. However, since you have all been so nice in your reviews, I will let you all make a small decision. I don't like to give things away, so I will simply tell readers that they can vote for 2 things. 1. You can vote for fire or ice, not saying what for, just choose which one you like more. 2. vote for a weapon.

Hell, since there aren't too many people to respond to for reviews, I'll even do that for now right here

**Isisoftheunderground : **You were my first reviewer and I am glad to see that I am not the only one who feels the way I do about my rants, so thanks.

**LeweL : **I do occasionally read Naru/olderwomen, but I just don't get any ideas for any stories like that. If I do one, then I would probably make a Naru/Tsunami just so that I can be the first I believe.

**Conlan0414863, Ibozun and sieraneru: **Well,there isn't really much else to say other than thanks, so that's why your responses are grouped together.

**Demon-sword : **I think I have answered some of your questions at the beginning of these notes. I also like Naru/Ten and Naru/Tema fics. I have some idea for a Naru/ten fic, and my ideas for a Naru/Tema fic changed into this with a naru/kin.

**AznAltron : **yet another person to agree with my ranting, thanks for the review.

**Nonesofar : **ummmm, I don't really understand your review, but ummm, thanks anyway…I guess.

**Onikami : **yes, there are very few naru/kin fics, and I know the other one of which you speak, I have not yet seen a long, finished naru/kin, so that is what I am attempting, and yes, I also wondered when people say that Kyuubi shows Naruto hand seals.

Well, thanks to you all and I hope you continue to read this story. I'll try to update often enough, but I just kind of write whenever, so who knows.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Wow, I just keep getting more and more nice reviews, and I am even on some people's favorite stories list, that makes me happy. Anyway, it appears that some of you really enjoyed my initial ranting and are disappointed that my more recent chapters have been lacking. So I will start throwing in some of my favorite rants at the end of this chapter and the next few. Anyway, enjoy.

**Shadow Fox**

It was a new day in the hidden sound village, the streets slowly began to fill with the villages residents as the village came to life. Things were going well for the village and it's citizens were happy. However, sitting on a tree stump in a training field, waiting for her team while spinning a senbon needle around in her fingers, there was a black haired girl in camouflage pants and a pale green sleeveless top who was definitely not happy that beautiful morning.

'Zaku and Dosu are getting so much stronger while I am getting left behind. Why am I always so useless? All I can do is make some illusions, and even then I need the time to set some bells up. What can I do to get stronger?' The girl (again, can anybody _not _guess) thought to herself.

She sat there deep in thought, continuing to spin the senbon needle between her fingers. 'Maybe I should ask sensei if he knows anything I could do… What am I thinking, he doesn't care about me, he just considers me an added burden to his team.'

The girl had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the black haired boy with piercing blue eyes that had been led into the training field. The sound of a young fox yipping playfully brought her out of her thoughts and drew her attention to these new arrivals.

"Who the hell are you, you do realize that my team will be using this field for training today." The girl asked this strange new boy.

The boy merely turned around and gazed at her, apparently sizing her up to see how strong she might be.

The girl found herself captivated by those piercing blue eyes. She had to admit that she found this newcomer rather attractive, especially considering that she spent all of her time around her teammates, one of whom looked like an unkempt hobo while the other was wrapped up like a mummy. This new guy was certainly a treat to her eyes…not that she would let him have any idea of that.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I was brought here to meet some people. What's your name?" Naruto figured that this girl was probably a member of his team, but he decided to hide that fact for a little while.

"Well, if you really want to know so badly, the name is Tsuchi Kin." The girl known as Kin replied "And this is where my team is meeting for practice today, so I don't know why you were brought here."

"It is nice to meet you Kin-san." Naruto replied. As he finished his introduction, his little fox partner ran around his legs. He knelt down and put his hand on the ground, and the fox kit ran up his arm and sat on his shoulder (he is still pretty small right now).

"What's with the fox?" Kin asked, not wanting the silence to return, else she would go back to reminding herself how useless she is.

"You mean this little guy, his name is Kyo, and he is my partner." Naruto answered with a smile.

"And how exactly did you end up with a fox for your partner, a strange pitch black fox no less."

"Well, you see, it all happened like this…"

Naruto then went on into a long tale about how he rescued Kyo from a group of ninja who wanted to capture him for his rare black fur, and followed up with tales of their many adventures and exploits. As he finished, Kin stared at him wide eyed.

"You two really went through all of that?" For someone his age to go through all of those adventures already was remarkable.

Naruto smiled at her as he said "Nope, not a bit." He remembered the way that they really met.

_Flashback_

"**_Naruto, this is one of our young shadow fox kit, his name is Kyo. He will be your new partner. He is the strongest of our kit and will fit your personality nicely._**" The shadow fox leader told him.

"Ok."

_End Flashback_

"WHAT! Then why did you just waste my time telling me that load of bullshit."

"ummm, well the real story is kind of boring, so I made a better one." Naruto replied as he gave her a sheepish smile.

Kin was about to continue yelling at him when her other two teammates began to appear in the clearing. She gave a sigh of exasperation as she turned back towards Naruto.

"Well, my teammates are here, so am going to go start training, maybe I will see you again sometime."

Naruto laughed for a second as he replied "Oh, I am sure that we will meet each other again soon enough."

As Kin left to go meet up with her teammates, Naruto just laid back on the grass and stared up at the sky. Kyo ran around him in a playful way and Naruto smiled. The shadow fox leader was right, Kyo really did fit well with the remnants of his old personality. Naruto sat up and begin to play with the young fox while he watched what was most likely his new team interact with each other.

Meanwhile, across the field, Dosu and Zaku where wondering who this new arrival was. Neither of them had ever seen him before, and they wondered what he was doing here.

"So whose the new guy over there, he your new boyfriend? Zaku asked with a smirk.

"Pssh, as if, why would I be with some idiot like that." Kin replied 'though he is cute, a lot better then these two.'

"Well why is he here." This time it was Dosu who spoke up.

"He said that he was brought here to meet some people." Kin shrugged as she spoke.

They were all wondering what this new guy was doing here when suddenly their jounin sensei arrived.

"Good morning sensei." Kin greeted her teacher.

The man gave her a slight nod of acknowledgement as his gaze fixed on the new boy lying on the ground. His students wondered what was happening as their sensei approached this new boy.

"Are you the new boy that Orochimaru-sama assigned to us?"

Naruto sat up and gave the jounin a small smile. The man stood about 6 feet tall and had light brown hair that came down to his neck. He wore a typical jounin outfit that didn't really differentiate him from others. Overall, he seemed fairly forgettable.

"I suppose so, Orochimaru-sama just had a ninja bring mere here to meet my new team, so I assume that you guys are my new team."

The jounin gave him a nod as he began giving introductions.

"My name is Izuko, and these are my students, the one with the bandages is Dosu, the other boy is Zaku, and the girl is Kin."

As Naruto looked over at the three students, he almost laughed as he saw the look of shock on Kin's face. He then looked at the others to notice the anger on the faces of both Zaku and Dosu.

'Score, finally some eye candy' Kin thought to herself. After all, she may have been a ninja, but at the same time, she was a teenage girl.

Zaku and Dosu weren't nearly as enthusiastic, Zaku turned to Izuko and started yelling at him.

"What do we need another team member for, are we thought of as that weak. Besides, this new guy doesn't look very strong to me, he's probably even more useless than Kin."

Dosu gave a nod of agreement at this comment, he felt much the same way.

Now Zaku's comment had gotten to Naruto, not only because this boy had assumed so little of him, but also because of the way he had spoken about his other teammate. Naruto knew how it felt to be looked down on by your teammates, and he didn't want to see anyone else go through what he did.

Naruto formed a hand seal and smirked as he began to melt into a shadow on the ground. The other genin's eyes widened in shock. They wondered where this new boy had gone when suddenly Naruto appeared out of another shadow behind Zaku, holding a kunai to his throat. Dosu's eyes widened even more until they took on a look of fear as he saw a spike made of shadows right beneath his throat.

Kin was amazed by this display from the boy that she figured was an idiot. When he was in battle, he seemed like an entirely different person altogether. He seemed almost like part of the shadows, except for his sharp blue eyes which had such a haunting beauty that she felt her breath catch in her throat.

However, as she watched this display, she was reminded of her own weakness and felt slightly depressed again. If she was falling further behind Zaku and Dosu, how far was she behind this guy.

Both Zaku and Dosu were shocked as hell, who was this new guy? One second he was in front of them, the next he was disappearing, and the next they were both in a life threatening position.

"You really shouldn't say something like that about your teammates." Naruto whispered into Zaku's ear "Neither me nor her."

"That will be enough for now, let them both go please." Izuko asked with little emotion in his voice. Orochimaru told him that this boy would be strong. He figured that the easiest way to have the boy fit in with the team was for him to show them how strong he was. Besides, he felt that Zaku and Dosu needed to be knocked down a peg or two for once.

Naruto nodded his head as he removed his kunai from Zaku's throat and the shadow spike below Dosu's throat retracted back towards the ground and took the shape of a fox once more. This is what really surprised the three genin, they had never heard of a fox that could merge with the shadows.

"Who the hell _are_ you?" Zaku asked him, his voice slightly shaky from having been beaten so easily.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and this is my partner Kyo." He said, motioning to his fox partner "And I am your new teammate."

"But that fox….he turned into a shadow…" Kin wondered aloud.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed softly "Yeah, he's kinda special."

The rest of their team meeting was spent with Naruto and his new teammates learning about each others abilities. Naruto learned that all of his teammates used abilities involving sound or pressure. This shouldn't have really surprised him seeing as how this was the hidden sound village. Naruto told his teammates that he specialized in stealth and shadow use, though he still had a lot of training to do.

What had surprised Kin throughout the practice though was that during their whole display of abilities, Zaku hadn't once made any comment about her being "Weak and useless." Dosu saw to it to make those insults every once in a while, but every time he did, Zaku seemed to give Dosu a fearful look. Did something happen after Naruto had threatened him? She saw him whispering to the boy, but had assumed that he was simply telling him not to underestimate him, but could he have said something about her?

'Who the hell does that guy think he is, I don't need him defending me, I can take care of myself just fine. Does he think I am so weak that I can't even stand up for myself.' She thought to herself, although deep down inside, the teenage girl she always tried to hide was giddy that a cute boy had stood up for her. She quickly pushed those giddy thoughts away and focused on her loathing of the boy.

'Another teammate who was given something to make him stronger. Zaku has his air holes (don't really know of a better way to phrase that), Dosu has his Melody Arm, and now Naruto has this fox of his. And what do I have? Some stupid bells that make people see things. I need to find a way to get stronger.'

After the four had finished explaining and demonstrating their abilities to one another, Izuko told them that they were finished with their team practice for the day, and that they should go and work on their individual skills for a while.

Naruto bid this teammates farewell, ignoring the slight look of fear on Zaku and Dosu's faces, and anger on Kin's face.

After a short search for a secluded training spot, he managed to find one and began to work on his new taijutsu form. He knew that he needed to continue to get stronger so that he would not hold anyone back ever again. As it stood right now, his shadow powers were strong, but somewhat slow, and were most effective with the element of surprise on your side, as Zaku and Dosu found out that morning. However, once the opponent knew what he could do, his shadow skills were less effective. In addition, if his enemy happened to by particularly fast, that was also a problem as they could easily dodge his shadow skills, possibly even when he had the element of surprise. He needed to improve not only his shadow skills, but his other fighting skills as well. He felt that he could be much more effective if he and Kyo did not use the exact same style.

He slipped into his taijutsu stance and began to go through some basic katas for his new style, the shadow style. Sure the name wasn't very original, but he felt that the name was a good description for the style of fighting. The style did not focus on speed or power like most taijutsu styles, this style focused on flexibility, flow and versatility. The style worked to "bend" around the opponents attacks in order to look for an opening and exploit it. It was a far more defensive style but fairly effective style. Still he felt that after he grew more proficient in the shadow style, he would need to learn a second, more offensive style to mix with it. He continued for a while with these katas, but he didn't spend too long on his taijutsu because the style couldn't truly be worked on without a sparring partner. He hadn't been able to do that in his time with the shadow fox, but he figured that having a team now, he would soon know them well enough to spar with them…although he kinda scared the shit out of Zaku and Dosu. Naruto sighed to himself, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

He then began to work some more on his shadow training. He called Kyo over to him, and he then explained to Kyo what they would do first for practice. He started off by having Kyo envelop him in shadows and they soon melted into the shadows on the ground. A second later, Naruto reappeared behind a training dummy to deliver a swift kick, only to disappear into the ground once again. He appeared again to the side and delivered a sharp punch to the dummy. This routine continued for about 30 minutes before he began training on some of his own shadow skills and using them in conjunction with Kyo. At the moment, he was still unable to manipulate the shadows without two hand seals. The shadow fox clan had told him that some of these skills could be performed with only one hand seals, and others with no hand seals at all. He needed to keep working to try to manage the jutsu with one or no hand seal.

After a couple of hours of various training, he decided to go and visit a weapon shop. While he was training, he had thought about the problem that his shadow skills had against fast opponents and decided on a way to partially handle this problem, as well as become more effective as a team member. He looked around the shop at the various weapons and found what he was looking for. He looked in his wallet at the amount of money that Orochimaru had given him to get started until he began to get missions with his team. He had more than enough to get his weapon and not be completely broke. He smiled as he took the weapon up to the cashier and paid for his new weapon and a scroll on how to use it.

He then looked around for a place to eat before going to train a little while longer with his new weapon. He was disappointed that he didn't find a ramen stand, he hadn't had ramen in over two and a half months. He doubted that he would have the same obsession with ramen that he held once before, but he still enjoyed the stuff and wanted to enjoy it on this one occasion. He settled for the sushi restaurant that he found and got a quick meal. He really wanted to return to his training, so he ate quickly and paid the bill, leaving quite a nice tip, and headed back to the field he had been training in earlier.

As he arrived at the field, he pulled out his new weapon, a chain whip. He figured that with the element of surprise that his shadows gave him, he might be able to tie up one of his opponent's limbs, leaving them more vulnerable to attack from himself or his teammates. However, he knew that he it would be a few months before he was that proficient with it, so he began his training in the basics of the chain whip. He practiced for a few more hours before he decided that it was time to go back to his apartment and rest for his team meeting tomorrow.

He awoke the next day and began towards the training field where he met his team yesterday. He watched around him as the people smiled at him, there were no looks of hatred from these people. For once, he finally felt at peace, like he might have found a home. As he arrived at the training field, he found his team waiting there for their sensei arrived. Not long after he arrived, Izuko appeared at the edge of the field.

"Naruto, here is your forehead protector for the sound, you are now officially one of our ninja."

Naruto took the forehead protector and pulled out a black cloth he had bought the night before, having figured he would be given one eventually. He tied the cloth to the forehead protector and put it on. (I really don't care where it is, I already told you to imagine his clothes however you want, just add the forehead protector wherever you want also.)

"Well everyone, today we all have a C-class mission."

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**A/N**: Well, this one was another filler chapter.Inever really knowwhat others will think of these fillerchapters, so sorry if you think it's bad.I really want to move on to the Chuunin exams because that is what I have the most thought out for, however I can't really just rush straight to it, so I have to keep up with these filler chapters. Also, I am sorry to all of those who voted on things, but after I told everyone they could vote, I kind of changed my mind about the whole issue. Regarding the fire and ice, I want to use one more then the other, but once you find out what it was for, you can decide whether you want to stick with one, or take both. As for the weapons, the weapon that I was planning on having voted on, I remembered something I wanted to do, so that is what I will do, however, I will be using other suggestions for other purposes. (and no, Naruto's chain whip is not what was being voted on.) As for other points to cover, I tried to explain how Naruto will not be super-powered in this fic, he is powerful, but weakens significantly should he lose the element of surprise. Well anyway, next chapter will be Naruto's first mission, other things, etc…

And now, on to the ranting for those who have demanded it.

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I almost hate to do this since I may end up insulting some of my nice reviewers inadvertently, but then again….I enjoy ranting, so tough luck, and remember, you all asked for it.

My rants are just that, rants. No one get too upset over this.

Today's rant will be on the Naru/Hina pairing.

Why are there so many Naru/Hina stories nowadays, it wouldn't be so bad if there were fewer of them and more well-written stories, so how did we end up with this overflowing sea of crap.

The answer is simple…..The pathetic loser fangirls.

Now to start, let's get one point straight. Any girls who are reading this story and are beginning to think me a sexist bastard, understand that when I say fangirls, I am not referring to all girl fans. I am in fact referring to the 90 or so who happen to be really annoying and stupid and write crap. There are plenty of girls out there who can write a good story and not be the excessive fangirl type. I am not referring to you, but to that other 90. (plus, I am kind of biased because the only fangirl that I ever know was a complete nutcase.)

Anyway, to continue the rant.

The reason that we have such an overflow of Naru/Hina stories is because the fangirls feel that they sympathize with Hinata. To put it rather bluntly and in an uncouth manner, most fangirls are unpopular nerds (well, actually pretty much all fanfiction readers and writers in general, including me…but I digress.). The fangirls either are in or remember their teenage years, and remember what it was like to be the unpopular girl with a crush on a boy. They know that in real life, they never got up the courage to attempt to tell the boy, and so they put all of those feelings into a Naru/Hina story. The problem is…they can't write worth shit.

And on that note, I will now proceed to write 75-80 of all Naru/Hina stories out there. Enjoy.

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Hinata was walking through the park one day as she saw Naruto, the object of her affection (or obsession as the case may be) and her breath caught as she turned beat red.

'Naruto-kun, today I will tell you how I really feel about you.'

Mustering up all her courage, Hinata walked over to where Naruto was as she began her confession.

"Naruto-kun, I h-h-have s-s-something to t-t-tell y-y-you."

"And what would that bee Hinata-chan."

"Well, y-y-y-you see, all of these y-y-y-years since the academy, I h-have admired you, and y-y-you s-s-see. I…um..w-w-well."

"What is it Hinata."

"I l-l-love you N-N-Naruto-kun."

"…….. Oh Hinata, I am so sorry, I never knew that you felt that way about me, but now that you have told me, I realize that all of those years obsessing over Sakura was a lie, I love you too Hinata, you have always been there for me all those years when you were hiding in the shadows and barely ever said a word to me all of those lonely childhood years you say you loved me during. I love you so much Hinata-chan."

"You love me too! Oh my , I am so happy that my stuttering has magically disappeared forever, I love you Naruto-kun."

"I love you too, let's go get some ramen."

And so, Naruto and Hinata walk into the sunset, ignoring the fact that he was a clanless demon vessel and she is the heir to a tradition-obsessed clan that would never let her go out with Naruto. None of those things occur because true love conquers everything and everything must end happily for the pair.

THE END

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Yes, maybe I am a mean spiteful bastard, but so what, that's just how I feel. Deal with it.

Next chapter: The Sasu/Saku rant – since when did the meaning of "thank you" change to "I have really secretly loved you in return all of these years and would like nothing more than to be with you, however I must push you away so that you will not be harmed by my crazy psycho brother."

Bye for now.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Heh, after the last chapter, my reviews almost doubled which tells me one thing, being a bastard gets reviews. Surprisingly, there was only one angry Naru/Hina fan, although I guess it makes sense since most of the Naru/Hina fans would not be reading a Naru/Kin story, they would look for another 20 Naru/Hina fics. Well, anyway, I prefer to put most notes at the end of the chapter, so on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto tensed slightly at the mention of a C-rank mission, the memories of his last C-rank mission resurfacing. He quickly pushed those memories down; he had to get over this sometime soon.

This reaction went unnoticed by all, all but one girl who happened to be glancing at her new "eye candy."

'Is he scared of going on a C-rank mission? Why the hell would someone as strong as him be scared of a simple C-rank mission? That's just pathetic.' She was brought out of her thoughts as she heard Izuko give them their mission briefing.

"Because we have a team of four members, Orochimaru-sama has given us an upper C-rank mission. Our orders are to take out a group of bandits nearby who have been attacking citizens and disrupting trade. It is possible that some of these bandits may be low-level missing nin."

"Heh, we'll handle them easily, they don't stand a chance against me." Zaku scoffed, clearly wishing for a bit more excitement. His attitude reminded him of Kiba, they were both rather cocky and brash.

"Yeah, even someone like Kin can take out a group of Bandits." Dosu relayed his opinion with a smirk.

Zaku gave a fearful glance at Dosu before taking a quick look at Naruto. Naruto smirked a bit, but was a bit unhappy that his teammate was still so scared of him.

'Damn it, I was only trying to teach him a lesson. I didn't think it would scare him so much.'

Kin glared at Dosu before she noticed that Zaku was scared as he gave a quick glance to Naruto. He was afraid when Dosu insulted her, just like he was yesterday. She felt that Naruto must have definitely said something to him yesterday and felt her anger towards the boy building again.

'That bastard, he thinks that I am so pathetic that I can't even defend myself. He is the one that is scared to go on a C-rank mission. I'll show him someday, I'll get stronger and show him that I can defend myself by beating him.'

"We will all meet back here in three hours to head on out. Go and get anything that you think you might need, we will probably be gone at least 4 days until we come back, so prepare accordingly."

The team dispersed and went their separate ways to prepare for the upcoming mission, all that is, except for a raven haired girl and a boy in nothing but black and his fox.

"Hey Naruto, why did you tense up when Izuko-sensei told us that we have a C-rank mission? Is the strong, mysterious newcomer scared of a few bandits?"

Naruto gave her a small, sad smile as he replied "It's not that, it's just that I have some bad memories of a C-rank mission."

"Really, what happened? You haven't really told us anything about yourself, what all happened that brought you to our team?"

"…Sorry, but I am really not in the mood to talk about it right now, maybe a little later." Naruto replied sadly as he turned to walk off.

Kin was pissed again. What was this guy hiding from them? Why wouldn't he tell her? She didn't want to be annoying and pry, but dammit she wanted to know. Seeing as how he had left though, she figured that there was no point staying there, so she left to go prepare for the mission.

Three hour later they had all returned to their meeting place prepared to set out on their mission. No one talked much as they traveled towards their destination. Kin was still pissed at Naruto and Zaku was still slightly afraid of him. Dosu and Izuko just didn't have anything to say.

After two days of travel, the group had spotted the group of bandits which had been causing trouble to the sound village.

"Naruto, go scout the area out to find out there numbers and see if you can gauge their strength any." Izuko ordered Naruto, who simply nodded and merged into the shadows.

"Man, that guy really creeps me out, always disappearing and reappearing like that." Zaku told the group.

"Ha, you're afraid of that idiot. Sure he's pretty strong, but he seems far from threatening." Kin replied with a scoff.

"He's not that strong, the only reason he got me last time was because he took me by surprise. If we fought again I would beat him into the ground." Dosu stated confidently.

Izuko listened to their conversation without saying a word. He wasn't entirely sure about how strong Naruto really was, but he had a feeling that if he were to fight Dosu again, he would win. However, he was worried about his team's teamwork. He had let the boy threaten Zaku and Dosu thinking that they might be impressed by his strength and that they would respect him, but it seems that it only served to anger Dosu and scare Zaku, and he had no idea how Kin felt. He felt that things were only going to get worse when they found out about the chuunin exams, before Naruto had arrived; his team had been submitted for the chuunin exams, how was Naruto going to take it when he learned that his team was given the chance to advance while he was not. Maybe he would accept it easily since the exams were in Konoha this year, and Orochimaru had told him that was were Naruto had run away from. He sighed as he thought about it, he would worry about it later, right now, he had to focus on the mission. He was broken out of his thoughts when Naruto returned out of the shadows.

"There are about twenty bandits in the area, fifteen in the main camp and five patrolling the area. It seems that that most are only bandits. Their seem to be four missing nin, judging by their chakra levels, probably around chuunin level, with their leader around high chuunin level, most likely from the hidden village of the stone."

"This mission seems a bit higher rank than what was originally intended, probably low B-rank. We'll have to be careful. Kin, I want you to deal with the bandits. Naruto, I want you to try to surprise the three lower missing nin and take them out quickly. Dosu and Zaku, I want you to help Naruto with any of those missing nin who escape Naruto's initial assault. I will take care of their leader. Does everyone understand their roles?"

Everyone nodded, though Kin was a bit pissed by the fact that she was simply told to handle the bandits. Was she not good enough to fight the ninja with the others? She felt so useless once again; she was just there to handle some bandits with no ninja training.

The four genin prepared themselves for their assault and waited for their sensei's command. After a few moments, Izuko ordered for their attack to begin. A moment later, three shadow spikes erupted from the ground, taking out one of the missing nin while the other two managed to dodge. As the other bandits wondered what was going on, the three other sound ninja emerged and began their attack.

Kin had already begun setting up some bells before Naruto had attacked and now began to set up the last remaining few she needed around the bandits. As they wondered about what was happening since one of the ninja of their group had just suddenly died, they suddenly began to be surrounded by illusions. As the bandits where confused by illusions, Kin began to take them out one by one. She almost laughed at how easy this was, but then got angry thinking that this was all that her team thought that she could handle.

Before the leader of the bandits had been able to jump into the battle after one of his fellow missing nin, he was suddenly forced back as he jumped back to avoid the small electric blast sent his way. It turned out that Izuko was not originally from the sound, but was a missing nin from the hidden cloud village. He was rather proficient in lightning jutsu, but held no particularly special ability. The leader of the bandits recovered and began to form some hand seals. Moments later, a dragon made out of mud was heading towards him. He quickly formed some seals until a tiger made out of lightning appeared in front of him and collided with the mud dragon. The tiger overpowered that dragon and began to head towards the missing nin. The missing nin dodged the incoming dragon, only to find a kunai in his back still held by Izuko. That was the last thing that the bandit leader saw as he fell forward and hit the ground, dead.

Zaku, Dosu and Naruto were not having quite as much luck with their fight. One of the ninja was keeping up a constant offensive on Dosu to keep him from using his Melody Arm. The other ninja was constantly avoiding attacks from both Zaku's zankuuha and Naruto's shadow attacks with Kyo. Any time that Naruto or Zaku would try to help Dosu, the ninja that they had been fighting would cut them off to make sure that they didn't interfere. The three of them were in trouble and they knew that they had to do something quickly, or else they might die here.

Naruto had an idea that might help them out, but it was a risk, didn't have much time to train with his chain whip, but what he was planning wasn't too difficult. He suddenly had Kyo envelop him in the shadows. When after a few moments he hadn't reappeared, Zaku began to curse, thinking that Naruto had run away and left them to die.

'Damn him, that coward. He can't surprise his opponent so he decides to run away instead of risk getting killed.'

Zaku and Dosu now had no choice but to spend all of their time dodging attacks. Both of them were getting tired and saw no chance to mount an offensive. This was it, they were going to die.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Naruto's chain whip wrapped itself around the arms of the ninja attacking Dosu, pulling him back and leaving him unable to move his hands momentarily.

"Dosu, attack him now!" Naruto yelled from somewhere behind the ninja.

Dosu didn't take any time in launching his attack. He pulled back his Melody Arm and threw a punch at the bound ninja. The ninja was unfazed for a moment, before his vision blurred and he began to vomit. This disorientation gave Naruto enough time to form some hand seals. When he finished, a large fist made out of the shadows came out of the ground and slammed into the man, causing him to cough up some blood before he fell unconscious.

Now that the odds became three to one, things became much easier for the three male genin. The enemy ninja had no chance for an offensive as he had to dodge attacks from all three of them. It all ended when Naruto pulled out a fuma shuriken and threw it right past Zaku.

"Zaku, use your zankuuha on the shuriken."

Zaku quickly obeyed and used his zankuuha on the shuriken. The added force from the air blast increased the speed of the shuriken to a rate that the enemy ninja had not anticipated. The shuriken embedded itself into his chest. He took his last few breaths as he soon fell over dead like his comrades.

As their battle had finished, Kin was finishing up the last of the non-ninja bandits. She was running low on chakra due to the constant upkeep of the genjutsu used in conjunction with the bells. By this point she had dropped the genjutsu and settled for simple kunai throwing, after all, these guys weren't ninja. She was now down to the last of the bandits and let loose what she felt would be the last kunai she would need to use. She smirked as the kunai embedded itself in her target, only for the smirk to change to a look of shock when the person disappeared only to be replaced by a log.

'Kawarimi? Dammit, he shouldn't be able to use that.' Kin thought to herself as she quickly looked around the area. Her look of shock changed to one of fear as the bandit was standing behind her.

"Our leader taught me how to use kawarimi; he thought it might be useful." The man explained with a smirk as he began to bring his sword down towards the raven haired girl.

'Shit, I was careless, and now it's too late to dodge and I am low on chakra. Damn, I am going to die.'

Kin braced herself for death, only to find that it never came. In front of her stood Naruto, a wall of shadows in front of him, shielding them both from the blow. As he held up this wall, Kyo began to change form and the bandit soon found himself impaled by a shadow spike.

If can was merely pissed at him before, she was beyond pissed now. 'Damn him, I don't need his help, I can take care of myself. I'm not some scared little girl; I don't need to be rescued.' However, that teenage girl part of her that just wouldn't go away was swooning over the fact that she had been saved by a "knight in shining armor" or in this case, a "ninja in…well, black."

'No dammit, I am supposed to be pissed at him for thinking I am so weak, not thinking about how hot he looks when he jumps in to save me.'

The rest of their team and their sensei soon made their way towards them. Izuko had grabbed the body of the unconscious ninja and had bound him and carried him over his shoulder. He told them that if he was alive, they might as well have taken him as a prisoner, but he knew that this prisoner would probably just be used as one of Orochimaru's sacrifices.

"Heh, Kin, you couldn't even protect yourself from a couple of bandits, pathetic." Dosu smirked as he degraded his teammate once again. Zaku gave another fearful glance towards Dosu and Naruto sighed, he didn't think that the boy would be _this_ rattled up by his threat the day before. He then noticed Kin's glare at Dosu, and then at him and he sighed again, he now had one teammate afraid of him and two that were usually angry at him.

The team set out for their return trip to the sound village. They soon decided to set up camp and they all gathered around the fire. Naruto had expected another night of silence around the campfire, but surprisingly, Dosu had spoken up.

"Hey Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say thanks for your help back there, you really helped out in our fight… not that I couldn't have done it alone or anything, but thanks for making it easier.

Naruto smirked a bit, figuring that was as close to a compliment as Dosu would ever give him.

"Yeah, thanks for the help, I thought that for a moment you were running away, but you really came through for us." This time it was Zaku who had offered his gratitude.

Naruto smiled, "It was no problem guys, after all, you guys are my teammates, I don't want anything happening to you."

He had thought that Kin might speak up at this point, thanking him for saving her, but instead he only received a glare from her and he sighed. He would never understand girls as long as he lived. He used to be nice to Sakura, only to get beaten over the head. Now with his new female teammate Kin, he tried to be nice and protect her, and she seems to be angry at him. It was all just too much trouble.

Much of their time then continued in silence once more. It was not necessarily an uncomfortable silence; there was really just nothing to be said. Everyone was getting tired and began to head for their tents to get some sleep, except for Izuko who said that he would keep watch for them tonight. Naruto however, figured that there was something that he needed to take care of.

"Hey Zaku, can we talk for a second."

Zaku seemed a bit hesitant before he nodded his head in consent.

The two walked away from camp a small distance when Naruto began to speak.

"You're scared of me, aren't you?"

Zaku looked at him a bit but didn't answer. He was scared of the boy, but he really didn't want to show his fear, it was something that a ninja shouldn't show to anyone, even their teammates.

Naruto figured that he wasn't going to get an answer. He gave a small sigh and continued.

"I am sorry about yesterday, I didn't want to scare you, I just wanted you to stop making fun of Kin like that, I know what it feels like to be talked down to by your teammates like that, and I just didn't want to see anyone else go through that."

Zaku looked a little bit shocked that a guy as strong as him would be talked down to by his old teammates, but he figured he didn't know about Naruto's past, so who knows what happened to him before he joined them.

"Anyway, I am your teammate and would like to be your friend. I am not going to harm you and I won't kill you. Truth be told, those bandits today were my first kills ever."

Now Zaku usually put up a tough front in front of other people, but he felt no need to do that with his new teammate. He liked the thought of having a friend; he never really had many friends before. He got along somewhat well with Dosu, but they were more of comrades than friends. Zaku let a small smile play at his lips as he responded.

"Thank you, I won't be afraid of you anymore. I would like to be your friend too."

Naruto smiled at having finally settled this and having a new friend.

"Well, let's go back and get some sleep, we need some rest for the trip back home tomorrow."

The two of them went back to their camp happy, both knowing that they had a friend now, something neither of them had had many of before.

The rest of the return trip back was fairly uneventful and they soon found themselves back in front of the gate of the hidden sound village.

"Naruto, Orochimaru-sama wanted to see you when we got back from our mission, please go see him soon, don't wait too long to go see him." And with that, Izuko was off to deliver his prisoner.

On that note, the team began to disband, except for, once again, Kin and Naruto. As Naruto began to walk off, Kin grabbed his shoulder and pushed him up against a wall.

"Who asked you to protect me? I don't need you to defend me; I am strong enough to defend myself."

She had expected a response like "If you were strong enough to protect yourself, you wouldn't have almost been killed by a bandit" but the surprise she got in response shocked her.

"I know that you are strong enough, I just didn't want to see you get hurt."

Now Kin had seen Dosu and Zaku protect her, but only because she was their teammate and she had to. This was the first time that anyone had ever protected her because they didn't want to see her get hurt.

"Why didn't you want to see me get hurt, was it just because I am your teammate?"

"No, I don't want to see you get hurt because you remind me a lot of what I used to go through."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto sighed, he didn't really want to talk about it, but he had to talk about it at some point, might as well be now.

"Well, I wasn't originally from here in the sound; I am actually a missing nin from the leaf. Back there, I used to be considered the 'dead last' I was hated and considered weak. My teammates constantly told me that I was useless and then when we went on our first C-rank mission, we ran in to two powerful missing nin from the mist village. While we were fighting the missing nin who was around our age, my teammate took an attack intended for me and he died from it. My other teammate blamed me and she was right, it was my fault for being too weak. So I left, and that's when I met up with Kyo here and got some training in before I wound up here. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go see Orochimaru-sama."

As Kin watched Naruto walk away, she thought about what he said and realized what he meant when he said that she was like him. He, like her, had felt useless and had been looked down on by his teammates. He hadn't thought that she couldn't stand up for herself; he had just acted out of anger, seeing someone being treated like he had. She continued to think about the things she had learned about her new teammate as she walked home.

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Orochimaru was sitting at his desk sorting through the paperwork. Yes, even the evil Orochimaru was forced to deal with the evils of paperwork. After all, this was a hidden village and he was the leader. He hated this paperwork, he had experiments to work on to get even stronger, he shouldn't be wasting his time with stupid paperwork.

So Orochimaru was relieved when it was announced that someone was here to see him. He soon saw a boy in all black and his fox make his way into his office.

"Ah, Naruto-kun, I was hoping to meet with you soon, I was hoping to discuss some training with you. You shadow skills are strong, but you need a bit of brute force your arsenal. You have a large amount of chakra and figured adding some brute force to your arsenal would be helpful. Tell me, do you know anything about summoning?"

Naruto shook his head. He had no idea about summoning, but it sounded like it would be a pretty powerful move.

"Well, you see, summoning is a jutsu in which, after you sign a contract, you can use your chakra and a bit of your blood to summon a creature to help you fight."

Naruto brightened at the prospect of this; he felt that having a powerful creature to help him would be immensely helpful.

"I show you the basics of summoning, but the problem is that I don't know what to give you to summon. I would let you use my contract with the snakes, but I don't want any conflict of summoning, there might be a problem if you try to summon a certain snake at the same time that I do. However, I don't know what else to give you. Do you have any ideas?"

Naruto thought about it for a second before he smiled.

"I have an idea, although I don't know if it will work, but I will deal with that later if you will teach me the basics."

Orochimaru nodded and spent the next bit of his time teaching Naruto more about how summoning works and the hand seals to use it.

After that, Naruto left Orochimaru to find a training field that was empty. After he found one that was empty, he sat down and meditated until he found himself in a familiar damp hallway. He walked down the hallway until he found himself once again in the presence of the Kyuubi.

"**What do you want now monkey.**"

"I was told about summoning today and was wondering if you had any kind of contract that I could use."

"**Ha, why would I give the help of any of my clan to you whelp?**" Kyuubi snorted.

Naruto knew how to handle this, Kyuubi could just be so easy sometimes.

"That's ok; I just figured that I would ask. Hey, do you know if there are any panda summons out there?"

Kyuubi's eye twitched "**You would rather summon some worthless panda then an almighty fox demon?**"

Kyuubi, Kyuubi, have you already forgotten." Naruto said as he held his thumb out and bent it back and forth.

Kyuubi's eye began to twitch even more as he yelled "**NOW YOU LISTEN UP, YOU WILL SUMMON WHATEVER FOXES A CHOOSE AND YOU WILL DAMN WELL LIKE IT, NO VESSEL OF MINE WILL FIGHT USING PANDAS!**"

Naruto smirked as a contract appeared in front of him. For a youkai lord with millennia of knowledge, he sure was easy to manipulate. He quickly signed his name on the contract before Kyuubi realized what he was doing and returned to consciousness.

As he awoke, he decided he would see what his new summon was like. He bit his thumb and formed the seals that Orochimaru had shown him as he slammed his hands into the ground and shouted "Kuchiyose no jutsu. He watched as in a burst of smoke, a small fox appeared, even smaller than Kyo. This fox however, was pure white from head to toe. He watched as the little kit yawned and he could see the frost that came from his breath. He looked at the little fox as it turned to him.

"Are you the one who summoned me?" The fox yawned.

"Yeah, it was me, now what are you."

"I am a member of the snow fox clan, part of the demon fox clan. As our name implies, we have power over snow and ice. The question is how are you able to summon us? We never made any deal with humans for summoning."

"Well, it just so happens that your leader Kyuubi is sealed inside of me, and he gave me the contract to sign." Naruto said as he pulled out a small treat for the fox.

The fox happily ate the snack and looked at Naruto once again "I like you, I don't think I will mind working for you."

"Thank you, well this was just a practice summoning, you are free to go now."

And with that, the fox disappeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto figured that was a pretty low level of summoning and that he would have to work for a while to build has chakra up to summon a larger Snow Fox. Then a voice spoke up in his head

"**When you summon them, I will give you a small bit of my chakra, if you use my chakra for the summoning, it should take very little since because I am the leader of the Demon Fox clan. That way, unlike others, you can summon without using much chakra.**"

"Thanks Kyuubi, however I would like to practice doing it with my own chakra also just in case I one day can't use your chakra for some reason. But for now, let's try it your way to summon the boss."

Naruto performed the summoning again, only this time instead of a small kit, he got a solid white fox the height of a house and rather long.

"**_Are you the child that my clan kit told me about?_**" The fox asked

"Yes I am. What is your name?"

"**_My name is Suyoki, leader of the Snow Fox clan._**"

"Well my name is Uzumaki Naruto; it's nice to meet you."

"**_If you wish for my help in battle, I ask that you also train in the use of a sword._**"

"And why is that?"

The fox then turned into a sword. The sword had a dark blue hilt with a light blue tsuba and two white blades, side by side (if you have seen advent children, think Kadaj's sword). You could literally see the cold air rising of the blade. Naruto took the blade in his hand to feel the weight of the sword. He had to admit, this was the coolest sword he had ever seen. He placed the sword back on the ground as Suyoki transformed back into his fox form.

"That is all that is needed for now, you are free to go."

The fox gave a nod and disappeared. Naruto was excited about this new prospect. However, he knew that he had a lot of training to do. The first thing he needed to do was to go and buy a practice sword.

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**A/N:** That's it for this chapter. Damn it I really want to move on to the chuunin exams. For anyone who may think that this story is going somewhat downhill, try to at least wait for that. Well, now you should know what the ice was for in that vote that I cancelled. I may be kind of overkilling the whole fox thing, but I really wanted to add another clan, so tough luck, it is my story after all.

Now I will respond to choice reviews before my rant.

**Dracowar: **Like I told you in the personal reply, the stories in the rants are meant to be satires and as such are supposed to be plotless and bad. If you don't like the satire, then don't read it, because I will warn you now, there is another one in this chapter.

**HatakeSanuka:** Boo friggin hoo, so I insulted your precious Naru/Hina pairing. I am sorry if it is hard for you to comprehend that some people don't like traditional pairings at all. If you don't like the rants, simply don't read them, no one is forcing you to. Also, you might want to avoid the Sasu/Saku rant after these reviews.

**Onikami: **if you want to see a picture of a chain whip, go to and look through the whips section.

**Zero Executable: **Well, I have to come clean about something. While I have read a lot of stuff and know most of what happens later in the story, I haven't really seen very far in the anime. I have only seen up to the beginning of the second stage of the chuunin exams, so really, I am writing a Naru/Kin having only seen kin speak one line. That means that adding Kimimaro and Tayuya becomes a bit difficult to me. I know how they fight and all, and they aren't really given much character, but I am really not sure about adding them, though I see a place that I might fit in Kimimaro. However, I would think that since they are higher ups, they wouldn't really get to know a simple genin. On a side note, your story does sound interesting, so if you ever post it, especially if it is Naru/Kin or Naru/Tayuya, then let me know.

Anyway, enough of that…ON TO THE RANTING!

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I think that almost all of my readers are guys now, I may have pissed of the majority of the girl readers….oh well, that doesn't change the way I feel.

Today is the Sasu/Saku rant, if you are just going to get all angry about it, just stop reading now.

So on the simple first note, WHO THE HELL DECIDED THAT THIS PAIRING WAS A GOOD IDEA (cough fangirls). I mean seriously, I haven't seen to far in the series, but from what I understand, there are only two instances, TWO, where Sasuke shows ANY emotion to Sakura other than annoyance or indifference.

1. When Sasuke gets the curse seal, he asks Sakura who hurt her (can be taken many ways other than love, friendship or camaraderie for instance) and the fact that he stops when she hugs him.

2. When Sasuke leaves, he tells her thank you…..that's it.

So HOW IN THE HELL did those two moments come to mean that Sasuke has really always loved her and that he just simply had to push her away for fear of losing another loved one or the possibility of Itachi going after her. (you do know where this is going by now, don't you)

Yes, once again, the blame falls on the fangirls. The Sasu/Saku pairing stems in a similar manner to the Naru/Hina. The only difference is that instead of the crush just being on any random boy, it is a crush on the popular boy that they will never have. Fangirls tend to write stories believing that every girl should have their crush. That is why we have Naru/Hina, Sasu/Saku and Neji/Tenten. However, they run into a block in that Ino has a crush on Sasuke too, and he can't be with both of them, so they pick what they consider the next fangirl favorite boy and pair her with him, meaning she ends up with Shikamaru. It is amusing how they will brush of what Naruto feels towards Sakura as a crush, but what Sakura and Hinata feel is obviously true love and not a silly crush like Naruto's (idiots).

That being said, on to writing the majority of Sasu/Saku stories.

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Sakura went up to Sasuke once again to request a date. Sure he has turned her down every day for the past 3 years, she knows that she really loves him, because he is cute, and surely that equates to love. All she has to do is keep asking him out and eventually he will realize he loves her.

"Sasuke, do you want to go out on a date with me?"

"…no"

"Oh…I feel sad now."

Sasuke looked at the disheartened face of Sakura and felt a pang of guilt in his heart.

'Oh Sakura, you are so beautiful, and I hate to make you sad, but I must push you away else I may lose another loved one, or you may be attacked by Itachi, so I must push you away and live as an avenger.'

However, as he continued to stare at her saddened face, he could no longer hold his true feelings in, he had to be with Sakura, she was his one true love.

"Sakura, I am sorry to make you sad, it was all a lie, I really do love you, I have just been pushing you away all of these years, but now I just don't care anymore, I love you with all my heart."

"Yea, I feel happy now."

And so, once again, another couple walks off into the sunset happy because nothing can interfere with "true love."

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In my opinion, not as good as the Naru/Hina mock story, but oh well.

Well, that's enough for now. Next time: the self insertion fic. If you are a girl who has ever written a self insertion, you will really want to avoid this one….or hate me, one of two.

Bye now.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **woohoo, I'm almost at my goal of getting at least 100 reviews for this story. Alright, in regard to Naruto and summons, here's the deal. The first thing to point out is that Naruto will not summon the shadow fox clan, he has one with him and uses shadows himself, it would be redundant to have him summon them also. As for summoning the other members of the demon fox clan, I leave that up to you guys. I didn't want to over do the whole fox thing, but if you guys want him to have the other members of the demon fox clan, then I might add it. However, if I do, it will be gradually over time. I don't want to give him all of them at once. Besides, he probably wouldn't have that many occasions when he would need to summon them. Oh well, enough of that, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

The past week had seen a lot of training and progress Naruto. His team hadn't been given any missions since their last mission, and had spent most of their team training time sparing. This was not a problem for Naruto as it gave him a good chance to work on his shadow style taijutsu. After having worked out his trouble with Zaku, he found Zaku willing to help him with his work on his shadow style, since he needed a partner to practice the style to its fullest potential. He had also occasionally sparred with Dosu, who was constantly trying to beat him to prove that his first victory was just a fluke.

During his free time, Naruto had a lot of things that he needed to practice with. He typically began with his practice of his taijutsu katas, followed by work with his shadow skills. Next, he would practice summoning using only his chakra, and lastly, he would practice with his chain whip and sword. He was getting better in all areas, but he seemed to be slowing in his learning with the chain whip and sword. There was only so much that he could learn without proper instruction. He had grown into a constant routine of training like this, so he was a bit surprised when on this day he found his raven haired teammate waiting for him at the training field he usually visits.

'I wonder why she is here. Does she need something from me?'

Figuring that there was no way of knowing unless he actually went and talked to her, so he continued walking out into the field. Kin took notice of him and walked over towards him.

"Hey, Naruto. Ummmm, I was kind of wondering about something so I cam here to talk to you about it?"

"Well Kin, what is it that you want to talk about?"

Kin looked a bit nervous before she replied "I was wondering if you could help me train to become stronger. I don't want to be useless anymore." Her voice began to trail off towards the end.

"Sure Kin, I would be more than happy to help you train." Naruto replied with a smile.

Kin looked at him a bit surprised. She had asked people to help her before, but they usually told her that they didn't want to waste their time on someone so weak. Yet here was this boy saying that he would be happy to help her get stronger.

'Naruto, why are you always so happy to help me? Is it because you said I was just like you, or might there be something more to it?"

Kin broke out of her thoughts and gave Naruto a small smile as she thanked him.

'She looks really pretty when she smiles, I should try to get her to smile more often.' Naruto thought to himself.

"Ok, well the first thing that I think that we should do is stop by a weapon shop and see if we can find a good weapon for you."

So Naruto grabbed Kin's hand, not noticing the small blush on her face, and led her to the weapon shop that he had gone to when he got his chain whip.

"So what weapon do you think that you would like to use?" Naruto asked her

Kin looked around the weapon shop until her eye fell upon a scythe with a dark black handle and a blood red blade. It was quite an intimidating looking weapon, and one that she felt compelled to learn. Kin paid for the scythe and she and Naruto returned to the training field.

The rest of the day was spent with Naruto helping Kin train with her new scythe, as well as contemplating different attacks that would suit her style instead of only having her illusions. When they were finished, Naruto began to walk off.

"Meet me back her again tomorrow, I am going to go see if I can find someone to help us with our weapons training."

Kin nodded as she watched Naruto and Kyo walk away from her. She was happy at the thoughts of future progress that she would make.

'I am going to get stronger, and then I'll show people that I am not a burden, that I can hold my own.'

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Orochimaru was pissed, it just seemed like the paper work would never stop coming. Why oh why did he decide to start a village as opposed to just forming a large band of powerful ninja like Akatsuki. No, he just _had_ to make his own village, and now he was swamped with paper work.

"Orochimaru-sama, you have a genin here to see you sir."

Orochimaru jerked up at the sound of his secretary's voice and his secretary was sure that he would be killed for disturbing Orochimaru, he had a tendency to fly off the handle over things like that. The secretary became even more afraid when she saw the smirk plastered on Orochimaru's face.

'Oh shit, I am going to die, why oh why did I take this job.'

"It is probably Naruto-kun again, send him in."

the secretary gave a sigh of relief and left to get the boy. A moment later, Naruto emerged in Orochimaru's office.

"Naruto-kun, what can I do for you today."

"I am sorry to disturb you Orochimaru-sama, but I was wondering if you could refer me to a weapon's specialist to teach me how to use a sword. If possible, I would like it if he can also instruct my teammate in the use of a scythe and me in the use of a chain whip."

"It is no intrusion at all Naruto-kun, you actually saved me from the boredom of paper work. So you need a weapons specialist? I think I have the perfect person in mind, where would you like to have me send him to meet you and your teammate?"

"If you don't mind, could you have him come to training field 13 at 4:00P.M.."

"That will be no problem Naruto-kun, I will have him meet you there tomorrow. Is there anything else that you need?"

"Nothing that I can think of at the moment Orochimaru-sama."

"Well, in that case you are free to go, good luck with your training."

Naruto gave a bow as he left the office. Orochimaru grinned at the work that his new weapon was doing to get stronger. Soon he would be a very powerful ninja, Konoha will never know what hit them.

'But how are we going to get you into the exams Naruto-kun, we can't let Konoha know that you are there, what are we going to do.'

Orochimaru's face grew another smirk, he had an idea, he knew what he was going to do for the chuunin exams.

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After their team practice the next day, in which both Zaku and Dosu were rather shocked to see Kin carrying such a fear inducing weapon, Naruto and Kin ran towards training field 13, planning to get a bit of training in before their new teacher arrived.

"So Naruto, who did you get to teach us?"

"I don't know yet, I asked Orochimaru-sama if he could refer me to a weapons specialist, and he told me that he would send someone here to meet us."

Kin nodded and the two returned to their training. Kin however, decided that she wanted to know more about the boy, and so it was that Kin turned to Naruto to ask him a question.

"Naruto, what were things like before you came to the sound?"

Naruto sighed, not really liking to bring up his past. He was happy now, so he wanted to just forget about his time in the leaf.

"Kin, I already told you about the way things were before I came."

"You just told me a basic overview to explain how you thought I was like you, I want to know more about you."

"And why would you want to do that." Naruto replied with a smirk.

A faint blush appeared on Kin's cheeks as she responded, "It's nothing like that, I just want to know what things were like that you think that I'm like you were."

Naruto let a smile play across his face as he thought that she looked cute with a blush on her face. He sighed and began to explain a bit more detail about his past. Of course, he didn't bring up Kyuubi, he was happy here where people didn't hate him, he knew that Orochimaru told him that they would accept him, but he still didn't want to take that chance. He then began to explain to her about his old team.

"My old team used to think nothing of me. I was always referred to as either 'baka' or 'dobe.' One of my teammates was the top rookie of the academy, a genius prodigy with hordes of fan girls. As for my other teammate…well, let's say that if you thought that you were useless, then there is probably not a word to describe what she was. To tell the truth, when it came to combat, she really never did anything. She was book smart, but she never really applied it much, spending most of her time chasing our other teammate. However, that never stopped her from commenting on how useless I was to our team."

Naruto's anger was building. He had never really had a chance to vent his emotions up to this point, so he had spent almost three months keeping these feelings repressed. Now however, they were starting to pour out and he couldn't stop them.

"We were in a battle with a missing nin named Momochi Zabuza and his partner who was also very powerful. My male teammate had been attacked and killed protecting me, and the girl blames me. She blames me when she didn't even do anything the whole battle, all she did was stand in front of the bridge builder we were supposed to protect and cry over the boy's body. And yet she has the nerve to blame me for everything."

"Wow…She sounds like a massive bitch."

Naruto realized that he was getting overly angry now, he didn't really hate Sakura, but he had kept his emotions pent up for so long, this anger just came out. He took a deep breath before he collected himself. The shadow fox had taught him to control his anger, as anger would only serve to weaken a shadow user in battle.

"No, I am making her out worse than she really is. She may not have been much of one for battle, and she was a bit of an obsessive fan girl type, but she wasn't that bad."

Naruto gave a small sad chuckle before he continued to talk.

"I always had such a big crush on her, but she was always swooning over our other teammate. Every time I tried to be nice to her, she would yell at me or hit me for annoying her. She would do the same thing if I insulted or fought with our teammate. I guess I never really stood much of a chance."

"What did she look like?" Kin asked, a bit sad at the thought that he has a crush on someone else.

'No, I shouldn't be jealous, he is just my teammate, I don't have time for a boyfriend, it will make me weak, I need to spend my time training. Damn that teenage girl part of my brain.'

"Well, she was a bit taller than me, probably around your height. She had emerald eyes and pink hair. She tended to yell a lot and sometimes get very violent."

"Sounds like some annoying, bright colored girly girl to me." Kin muttered under her breath.

Unfortunately for her, Naruto heard her and a smile grew on his face.

"Awwww, I am sorry Kin-Chan. I didn't know that you would get so jealous."

Kin grew another blush at having been caught and the added suffix to her name. "It's not that, I just can't picture with you with some loud, perky girl, especially one with pink hair."

Naruto gave a small laugh "You didn't see me back then, I was a lot louder and 'brighter' as you say."

Kin stared at the boy for a moment, She just couldn't picture this dark, quiet boy to be anything like he just described himself, "You're lying."

"Am not. In fact, my hair used to be blond and I wore an orange jumpsuit. I would pull pranks all the time and was very loud."

Kin thought at the prospect and laughed. Naruto enjoyed the sound of her laughter, it was soft and melodic.

"Your laugh sounds nice, you should do it more often."

Kin blushed and looked for a way out of this situation when she saw someone approaching.

"Look, who's that coming over here?"

"Maybe he is our new teacher for our weapons."

As the man approached, they noticed that it was a rather sickly looking man with pale skin and white hair. He had two red dots on his forehead, one over each eye. As he approached them, Kin let out a small gasp, and Naruto gave her a questioning look.

"Kimimaru-san, what are you doing here sir."

Kimimaru looked over them and then turned to Naruto, "Are you the ones that Orochimaru has sent me to teach weapons skills to."

"I believe so, my name is Naruto, and this is my teammate Kin."

"As the girl said, my name is Kimimaru, so what do you want me to teach you."

"Well, I would like to learn about using swords and a chain whip, she would like to learn about using a scythe."

Kimimaru thought about this for a moment before he replied "I can help you with the sword and scythe, however I can't help you with the chain whip, I can't make one with my bloodline."

Naruto gave him a puzzled look and Kimimaro sighed as he pulled out a bone in the shape of a sword.

"This is what I mean, I can use my weapons as bones, but I can't make a chain whip out of my bones, so I can't help you with that."

Naruto nodded and they began to train with Kimimaru on their weapons skills for the rest of the day.

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Two weeks had passed (no complaints about not including every training detail, all you really need to know is what they trained in, besides, I want to keep some surprises) and Naruto and Kin had both improved a great amount in such a short period of time. Kin had improved a lot with her scythe use, and had worked hard on the new moves that she had thought up with Naruto. Naruto had continued with his shadow jutsus and shadow style taijutsu, and was now fairly proficient with his sword. He had also improved to summoning a mid level snow fox using his own chakra, and was getting fairly good with his chain whip, despite having a proper trainer for how to use it. Naruto had also asked Kimimaru for a bit of training with two swords while he was training them. Kimimaru had complied and taught Naruto a modified version of his dance techniques.

It was at this time that Naruto and his team found themselves in the office of Orochimaru, wondering why he had summoned them.

"I have called you all here to discuss the upcoming chuunin exam with you all."

The four genin perked up, wondering what Orochimaru had to tell them about the chuunin exam.

"As you know, this year the chuunin exams will be taking place in Konoha…"

Naruto's head dropped a bit at this news, he couldn't go back to Konoha, he was a missing nin there and knew that his team was going to be sent while he was left behind.

"As you may know, only teams of three can enter the exams, so this year, I will be sending Kin, Zaku and Naruto."

This news had shocked all of them. Naruto was a bit worried about returning to Konoha, and Dosu was extremely pissed.

"WHAT, why am I being left out. Why can't you leave Kin out, I am definitely stronger then her, so why am I being left behind." Dosu yelled.

"Orochimaru-sama, I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go and participate in Konoha." Naruto had responded.

"Everyone be quiet. The fact of the matter is that we had already registered the three of you before Naruto had arrived. However, I need Naruto to participate in the exams, and the only person that he can impersonate is you Dosu, so I need you to stay behind while Naruto goes disguised as you."

"But Orochimaru-sama…"

"SILENCE!" Orochimaru interrupted Dosu, "I have made my decision and you will abide by it, is that clear."

Everybody responded with a yes, and Orochimaru dismissed them, leaving two surprised genin, one worried genin, and one pissed genin.

Naruto fears were relieved a little bit when he was told that he would be posing as Dosu, but he was still afraid of what would happen if he was discovered. Naruto gave a sigh as he arrived home, there was nothing that he could do about it now, Orochimaru's mind had been made up, and there was no changing it. He fell asleep that night wondering what all would occur when he returned to Konoha.

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**A/N:** well, another quick filler chapter. Sorry to anyone who thinks I am rushing to the chuunin exam, but I really did not want to have too many chapters just describing him training, and I feel that there is not too large of a time gap between the wave arc and the start of the chuunin exam, so he wouldn't have too much time to spend in the sound before the exam. I feel like there was more to say, but I forget it, so oh well.

I don't really have any reviews that I feel like responding to, so I guess it is on to the rant.

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Today is the self insertion rant

To fangirls who have written a self insertion…this one is brutal, you might want to avoid it. You've been warned.

Anyway, to put it simply, self insertion fics are a load of crap.(and damn it, the name just sounds dirty.)

And once again, my blame falls on the fangirls.

To try to put this with as much tact as I can manage, The fangirls who write self insertion fics…..well, they are unpopular and most likely not very attractive. In real life, life sucks for them, they want to be pretty and popular, but they're not. It may even go so far as to them being ridiculed by others.

So what do they do about it…they decide that writing a self insertion fic will make them feel better. They write a story where they get sucked into the world of their favorite fiction (in this case Naruto) where they are the most beautiful girl that anyone has ever seen and they are incredibly powerful that no one can stand before their might, and all the boys like her, but she chooses whichever is her favorite and writes about how he instantly loves her and her strength and they are both happy together.

Could there possibly be anything worse than this crap you might ask? Why yes there is. When the fangirl gets with a group of her friends in the same boat and write a "3 girls get sucked into the Naruto universe" fic. You take all that was bad about the single fangirl self insertion, and you triple it.

So let this message be known here and now: Writing a self insertion fic is not going to make your life any better, go out and do something about it instead of writing a load of crap that nobody wants to read, you are wasting both your time and the time of everyone searching through the load of your crappy self insertion fics to find a story that is actually good.

And with that brutally said, it is time to write the majority of self insertion fics.

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Once there was a girl named (insert name here). She lived an unhappy life in the real world. She was homely and unpopular. She so wanted to be pretty and popular. She only had two friends, and these friends were just like her. One day, the three of them went to her house and while they were watching Naruto, they were magically sucked into the T.V. and transported into the world of Naruto.

"Hey, where are we?"

"I think that we are in the world of Naruto."

"Wow, we have suddenly gotten really strong. Look, I already know how to use just about every jutsu."

"Hey your right, we already know all of the jutsu."

"…OMG, LOOK GUYS, WE'RE PRETTY NOW!"

"Your right."

Suddenly, (insert the favorite boys of the authoresses) appears in the clearing in which they have landed.

"Wow, that girl sure is beautiful and strong."

"So is that one."

"I think that we are all suddenly in love with these strange girls who have just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They can't be spies or anything, so lets take them back to become Konoha ninjas."

Girls : "Hooray!"

And so the girls followed their favorite male ninjas back to Konoha. In the following week, they would kill Orochimaru and all of the Akatsuki members with their incredible innate power upon arriving in the Naruto world, because obviously when they were pulled through their T.V., they gain power that all of the real ninja spend their whole life perfecting, but that doesn't matter now does it. Anyway, the ninja that found them profess their newfound love to these complete strangers and the girls say that they love them in return. The girls are much happier in this load of crap fantasy than the real world, so they never search for a way back, they just live out their days as the "beautiful goddesses of the Naruto world."

The End.

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……Damn, I'm a bastard. Oh well, tough luck.

Don't really know what I may choose to rant about next chapter. If you want to make requests, I might consider them, but remember, I have only seen up to the start of the second stage of the chuunin exams.

Until next time.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Well, I reached my goal of 100 reviews. I have no idea if I would have reached that already if it weren't for my rants, since a large number of my reviews focus on my rants, but hey, whatever works. It seems that some people are not exactly thrilled that I gave Kin a scythe, so I suppose that I need to explain my reasoning. 1. I wanted to put a scythe in the story, and I didn't want to give Naruto every weapon imaginable. He already has two and he will probably have some more if he summons other demon fox clans (because why is Enma the only summon that turns into a weapon dammit.) So to add more weapons that he constantly carries with him is becoming overkill. 2. I can just picture Kin using a scythe. Since her character was originally designed to look like a "bad character", her darker look fits with a scythe in my mind. So as I said before…tough luck, it's my story, deal with it.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto stared at the large gate looming in front of him and a sense of dread returned to him. Orochimaru had done all that he could to try and reassure Naruto that there would not be any trouble in his return to Konoha, but now that he was actually here, all of that dread was returning. What would he do if the leaf ninja found out about him, what if the sound got in trouble for harboring him and bringing him back for the chuunin exam. What if he caused a war? He really didn't want anyone from his new home hurt, but he didn't want to see any of the people he cared about in Konoha to get hurt either, like the old man, or Iruka-sensei, or his old team.

The thought of his old team caused a sadness to well up in his heart. Although his emotional wounds had some time to mend, they had never fully healed, and returning to Konoha only seemed to reopen those wounds.

'Sasuke, what would you think of me if you saw me now? Would you still consider me the dobe? Would you think that I was worth your sacrifice?'

Both Kin and Zaku had noticed Naruto's discomfort as they approached the gate, and they both laid a hand on one of his shoulders. He had told Kin a quite a bit about his past during their training sessions, and he had told Zaku about his past on their way to Konoha. He felt that his friend needed to know about his past so that he might know what to expect from him when they arrived at Konoha. Both understood that returning home was difficult for Naruto, and they wanted to offer some comfort to their friend.

"Don't worry Naruto, you've told us that your fighting style has completely changed since you left, and with your head covered in bandages, they'll never realize that it is you." Zaku said to ease his friend's fears.

Naruto gave each of his friends a small smile. He appreciated their attempts to cheer him up. It felt good to have friends like them. He had never had friends like the two of them while he lived in Konoha. Sasuke and Sakura were the closest thing he had to friends his age, and they were constantly insulting and belittling him. To have these friends now that cared about him were what he had always wished for.

Izuko stood behind his team, watching their interaction as they stood at the gate to Konoha. He gave a small smile as he watched the interaction between his modified team. His team had always been fairly talented, but before Naruto had come along, they were never really a team. Dosu and Zaku had tolerated each other, and looked down on Kin, and Kin had just felt out of place. Now that Naruto was in their team, Zaku and Kin were both much happier. Zaku had stopped looking down on Kin, and Kin had taken an initiative to become stronger. The boy had brought out the best in his team, and he felt bad about what he may be putting this boy through.

_Flashback_

"Izuko, I need to talk to you about some matters involving your team." Orochimaru told the former Cloud nin.

"What do you need from my team Orochimaru-sama?"

"It is not what I need from them, it is what I need from you regarding them, particularly Naruto." Orochimaru replied "As you know, we will be launching our attack on the leaf during the chuunin exams. I am certain that Naruto holds a grudge against most of Konoha and will have little difficulty fighting them. However, I am worried about any relationship he may have had with Sarutobi. I have little doubt that Sarutobi treated him well and was one of the few people who accepted him. Therefore, I am worried about the possibility of Naruto refusing to fight the leaf while Sarutobi is alive. I want you to keep the attack a secret from your team. I think that after I have dealt with Sarutobi, Naruto will willingly join in the attack. Until then, I want you to let them think that they are simply there as participants."

"Very well Orochimaru-sama, I will tell my team nothing about the attack on the Leaf."

_End Flashback_

'I am sorry to do this to you if the Sandaime means as much to you Orochimaru thinks he does, but I will do whatever I have to for the success of the Sound.'

------------------

Meanwhile, said hokage was sitting at his desk behind a mound of paperwork. He tried to continue with the paper work, but he just couldn't do it, his mind just kept wondering to a certain someone. He had just finished dealing with the jounin instructors and their nominations for the chuunin exams. Kakashi had nominated the revised team seven and Sarutobi could not help but find himself remembering a certain hyperactive blonde ninja who had been missing for almost four months.

'Naruto, I wish that you were here, I know that you would have loved to take part in the chuunin exams. Where are you now I wonder?'

The Sandaime had been disheartened when Kakashi had returned with the remainder of team seven and a note from Naruto. The tone of Naruto's note had greatly saddened Sarutobi; Naruto's seemingly indomitable spirit had been crushed. He had sounded so…defeated.

Contrary to what Naruto thought would happen, Sarutobi did not declare him a missing nin. He knew that Naruto felt that he would probably be a missing nin, but Sarutobi couldn't bring himself to do it. He read and reread Naruto's note many times and he never saw any sort of malice towards the village in that note, only saw self-loathing. He knew that the council would want him declared a missing nin so that they could kill the Kyuubi, but Sarutobi held out hope that Naruto would one day return to his village. Naruto had said in his note that he might return someday, and Sarutobi wanted to make sure that he was able to. That was why Naruto had been presumed dead in the hidden village of the Leaf. Sarutobi had felt that as long as he was presumed dead, then there would not declare him a missing nin and he would be safe from the hunter nin. Also, he felt that if he were presumed dead, and then returned, they could make up a story about his recovery from near death and bring him back into the village, whereas if he were a missing nin, he could probably never come back. He had made it a law that the council shall not speak of his "death" under punishment of death, the only people who knew the truth about him were the original members of team seven, Sarutobi, and Iruka.

'I hope that you will come back to us one day Naruto, and I pray that wherever you are, you have not joined with any of our enemies.'

------------------

Naruto and his team had been given the day off to look around the village. Naruto had been showing his teammates around the village, careful not to seem too knowledgeable about the area lest he bring suspicion upon himself. They were currently standing in a tree, overlooking an alley when they saw a mass of pink hair chasing around three children, and the children looked scared as hell, this crazy girl was going to kill them. Naruto watched the scene take place with a little bit of apprehension.

They watched the girl chase the kids until one of the children ran into a boy in a black cloak who was walking with a girl with a giant fan.

The boy in the cloak picked the boy up by his collar and began to speak to him.

"Watch where you're going brat."

"Kankuro, just put the kid down and lets go."

"Hold on Temari, he's not around, and I just want to have some fun."

"…Fine, but I am not involved."

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I am sorry that he ran into you. Please put him down." Sakura said to try and diffuse the situation.

"Now why would I want to do that, I need to teach this punk a lesson."

"You big bully, if Naruto-niisan were here, he'd kick your butt."

Sakura's face faltered a bit at the mention of Naruto, she still felt a great deal of guilt over his departure. If only she hadn't been so stupid and spoken in anger, maybe then he would still be here, they would all be entering the chuunin exams together, he would be here trying to save his little friend.

'Konohamaru' Naruto thought as he began to melt into the shadows to go save the boy.

He stopped his rescue as he saw a stone fly through the air and hit the boy known as Kankuro. In his surprise, he dropped Konohamaru, who scurried behind Sakura for protection (really, some protection there). Kankuro and Temari looked up a nearby tree, only to find a raven haired boy in a blue shirt and white shorts smirking arrogantly at them.

Naruto's visible eye widened in shock and his breath caught in his throat. This couldn't be real, he was dead. He found himself unable to move, unable to speak, he was frozen in shock. How was this possible? He had seen him die, so how was he here now? Was he imagining this?

"Sasuke-kun, you're the greatest!" Sakura yelled in a typical fan girl manner.

There was no mistaking it now, it really was Sasuke. Naruto was paralyzed with shock. He watched as Sasuke threatened the two, and then watched his following conversation with a red haired boy. Naruto felt that this red haired boy revealed as Gaara was powerful, and there was something about him that seemed familiar, but he couldn't really focus on any of that, he couldn't believe that Sasuke was still alive.

The three sound genin stood there until all of the participants in that little exchange had gone there separate ways. Zaku and Kin were ready to go explore the rest of the village when they noticed that Naruto seemed to be very shaken up.

"Na….Dosu, what's wrong (they can't call him Naruto in public, even if they think they are alone…it _is _a ninja village after all.)." Kin asked him.

"…Sorry, but I think that I need to be alone right now." Then Naruto and Kyo vanished into the shadows before his teammates could say anything.

--------------

Naruto found himself in one of his favorite spots from his childhood, sitting on top of the heads of the previous hokage's. He overlooked the village that he once called home and couldn't help but feel confused. He enjoyed his life in the sound, he wasn't hated, he didn't need to work for people to acknowledge him, he could just live an ordinary life. However although he had many bad memories of Konoha, this is where some of his most important people were.

'sigh No use thinking about returning here, I am a missing nin now. Besides, I enjoy my life in sound. The villagers, my team….Kin.'

As he was lost in his thoughts, said female teammate approached him and sat down beside him. Neither said anything for a while, both enjoying just being in the others company.

"Are you going to be ok?" Kin asked, breaking the silence.

"I think so, just thinking about some things. Nostalgia I suppose (yeah, Naruto probably wouldn't use words like nostalgia, but he does now)."

"Well, I don't know how you feel about this place, but personally, I am glad that you came to Sound." Kin gave him a small smile which Naruto returned.

"Well Kin-chan, would you like to join me for dinner at my favorite ramen stand tonight?"

Kin blushed at the added suffix "Sure, why not."

Naruto smiled at her as he grabbed her hand and led her to the Ichiraku ramen stand.

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**A/N:** yeah, I know that this chapter was pretty short, but I just decided to get a quick chapter in about their arrival in Konoha. Besides, shorter chapters mean you don't have to spend an hour reading through the chapter. Ok, I know that I have typically been updating quickly, and I will still try to make updates fairly quick, but I have decided to spend a bit more time on chapters so I can think things through and not write myself into a corner.

Ok, for now during the chuunin exams, someone talking to Dosu will probably be talking to Naruto, they can't say his name in public, so unless they are in their hotel, they will call him Dosu.

One thing that I feel I need to add. I need to add a message to all the semi Naru/Hina fans that have reviewed as I seem to have made my view seem a bit harsher than it really is. I do not hate everything Naru/Hina related. I admit that with a good author, a good Naru/Hina story can be written, the point is that most of them suck. Also on a personal level, I just don't like common pairings like Naru/Hina because there tends to be little development since in the story Hinata already like Naruto, all they need to add is Naruto returning the feelings, and that my friends makes a boring story. On a final note, I am not trying to convince you to give up Naru/Hina or anything like that. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. My opinion just happens to be that most Naru/Hina fans are idiots (not all, MOST).

Now to respond to a few choice reviews.

**LeweL: **Ok, I'm sorry, but did you miss the 3 or 4 times that I have clearly said that this will not be an evil Naruto fic. I mean really. As for the rasengan, I am still unsure, my plot for the future can consider it but not guarantee it. For the record though, he will not learn it on his own or from Kyuubi, it is really stupid when people do that. If he learns it, it will only be learnt from Jiraiya.

**Hell's Sorrow: **Ok, as for both of your questions:

Well, I kind of put Kimimaro's appearance in as simply that, an appearance. To put things on a more logical note, yes, Naruto and Kin could be trained by the sound five, but I wouldn't think it likely. They areOrochimaru's elite group of ninja, I think they would be out on missions, not training some genin. As for Kimimaro, I figure because of his illness, he might not be on many missions and thus have more time to train them.

Ok, the Naru/Saku is kind of a toss up to me. The stems mostly from the fact that my opinion of Sakura varies wildly as I read different stories. I know that you said you would take me off of your favorite Authors list if I read Naru/Saku, and it hurts me to do it, but yes, I do read them. Although technically, it would be my second least favorite, beaten only by Naru/Hina. The problem is that Naru/Saku is beginning to get like the Naru/Hina pairing, too many and poorly written. But to sum it up, I don't particularly hate it, I just don't entirely love it either. And if I am not too strongly against it, it wouldn't be as good of a rant.

For those who want a rant, I will put one in next chapter. I will try to space out the rants some so that I don't run out as quickly. Sorry for those of you really hoping for a rant, but this was just a quick chapter and I'm lazy. Besides, if I do it now, my authors notes and rants my be longer than the actual chapter. Anyway, the reviewers reminded me that I meant to rant against High School fics and forgot about it, even though I listed it in the first chapter. So next chapter, you'll get the high school fics rant.

Till next time.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Well, I need a new goal now…so I say it's time to aim for 200 reviews. I'll have a high review story yet…Anyway, I really don't have much to comment on right now, a rare occasion indeed, so on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto was, for one of the few times in his life, genuinely happy. He really enjoyed his time with Kin that night, it was the only time that he had felt relaxed since he had arrived back in Konoha. It hadn't been a particularly eventful night, but he had enjoyed it none the less. They just had a simple dinner at the Ichiraku ramen stand, enjoying each others company as they had short conversations about training or the upcoming exams, or anything else that they felt like talking about. Naruto had been a bit sad that he could not greet Ichiraku and Ayame, but he figured there was nothing he could do about, so he decided to not let it get to him as he enjoyed his meal with Kin.

After they were finished, they went back to their hotel room, where they were greeted by Izuko, who had a questioning look on his face, and a smirking Zaku. Izuko had been wondering where they had been for all this time. Zaku had returned to the hotel, but he had no idea where they had been and as such was starting to get slightly worried that something might have happened, like Naruto being discovered. Zaku on the other hand, had seen Naruto head off on his own earlier, and had seen Kin head out to look for him afterwards. He figured that either Kin couldn't find him, or that she did find him and they had spent quite a bit of time together. Seeing as how they came home together, he assumed the latter.

"I am glad to see that you two are ok, I was worried that something might have happened to you." Izuko told them with a sigh of relief.

"Were sorry Izuko-sensei, we just went out to get some dinner." Kin replied.

"Awww, did the two of you finally go out on your first date?" Zaku asked in a mocking tone. Naruto was his friend and he had stopped looking down on Kin after seeing her work so hard at her training, but he still couldn't help but tease them about this. The looks on their faces were nothing short of priceless.

"ZAKU, IT WAS NOT A DATE!" Kin yelled at him. Only Zaku noticed the small slump in Nartuo's shoulders as she yelled this.

"She just went with me for dinner so that I could have some company, nothing more." Naruto added with a small, sad smile, though this went unnoticed by all since his face was covered in bandages.

The team spent a while talking about the upcoming exam or other things that came to mind. As it grew later, the talking wound down and Kin went to go get a shower, but not before threatening that Hell was nothing compared to what she had in store for them if they tried anything while she was in the shower. After they heard the water starting in the bathroom, Zaku turned towards Naruto and smirked.

"You like her, don't you?"

Naruto started panicking for a second until he calmed down and realized that there wasn't much point in trying to hind things from his friend now.

"I am not really sure. I do care about her and enjoy being around her, and she is very cute, but I don't really know. The way I feel about her is…different from the way I have felt about some girls in the past."

Zaku smiled at his friend, he knew that Naruto had never really felt loved before as a child and thus had a bit of a problem understanding love himself. He could see that something was beginning to develop between his two teammates and he was happy for them. However, Naruto really didn't understand love and Kin was just to stubborn and always acting tough to admit anything to him.

"I understand. Don't worry about her, she just tends to put on a tough act around people, but I think that she cares about you too. I can't say for sure if it is love, but I know that she cares about you a lot."

"And how is that?"

"Because I have never seen her this happy until you came and joined our team."

Naruto smiled at his friend who returned the smile. They were both happy to have each other as a friend. Suddenly they heard a shout coming from the bathroom.

"DAMMIT, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOT WATER!"

Both Zaku and Naruto both stared at each other for a second.

"You care about _her_?"

Naruto gave a small laugh as he replied "Who wouldn't."

Zaku smirked at him, "You do know that I will have to give you a hard time about this whenever she is not around."

"I wouldn't expect it any other way." Naruto replied with a smile.

The two of them shared a laugh as Kin came out wearing her pajamas. She gave the two of them a questioning look, wondering what the hell was so funny.

"What the hell are you two laughing about?"

The two boys smiled at her and replied with a simple "nothing." Kin stared at the two of them for a while before throwing her arms up in frustration and walking off to her bed, knowing that the two of them had no intention of telling her why they were laughing. Zaku and Naruto followed her example, figuring that there was not much else to do that night.

'Naruto, I hope that you two can be happy together.' Zaku thought before he drifted off to sleep.

---------

The rest of the week had been a fairly simple affair for the sound genin. They had spent most of the week relaxing and having light training sessions. Finally, the day came for start of the chuunin exams. Naruto led his team to the Konoha academy where they saw a crowd of people gathered around a doorway. There was a boy in green being thrown to the ground by two men in front of the door.

"What the hell are these people doing, can't they see that this is a genjutsu?" Kin whispered to her teammates.

"Who knows, lets just stay back and see what happens." Zaku replied.

They watched as a girl with her hair in buns helped the boy in green, she was probably his teammate. Naruto then tensed as he saw Sasuke, Sakura, and a third boy that he didn't know walk up to the guards.

'Why does Naruto tense up every time that he sees that girl and boy?' Kin thought to herself. Zaku was thinking the same thing in his mind.

"Move out of the way, we want to go to the third floor." Sasuke ordered the guards with a smirk. "Your not going to stop us with some pathetic genjutsu. Sakura, you probably noticed this before any of us, you are the analytical mind of our team."

"Huh…Oh, of course I noticed, we are on the second floor, so this can't be room 301."

"Impressive." One of the guards stated "But can you stop this."

The guard suddenly launched a kick as Sasuke moved to punch the guard. Both were interrupted, however, by the boy in green, who stopped both of their attacks.

"He's fast." Naruto told his teammates, "looks to be that he is most likely a taijutsu specialist."

His teammates nodded as they watched the boy and his team meet with the members of team seven. (I see no point in including this since you all have probably read it at least 20 times, so you know the deal by now.) Everyone began to head towards the testing room when Naruto noticed that Sasuke was being challenged by the boy in green. As this new boy and team seven went to find a place for the two to fight, Naruto turned to his team.

"You guys go ahead, I am going to check up on something, I will be there soon."

His teammates hesitated for a minute before they nodded. They weren't entirely sure about what he was planning to do, but they trusted Naruto not to do anything stupid. They continued towards the testing room while Naruto went to watch his old teammate fight with this boy in green. Naruto hid in a corner, watching them from above as the boy in green introduced himself as Rock Lee. Naruto took a closer look at the boy and noticed something that he hadn't really noticed before.

"Wow…those are some huge eyebrows, aren't they Kyo?"

The fox kit at his side yipped in response as they watched the fight begin between Rock Lee and Sasuke, and to put it simply, Sasuke was getting beaten…badly. Even after he had activated his Sharingan, he was still unable to stop Lee, he was just too fast for his Sharingan to keep up. Any doubt that Naruto may have had that this was Sasuke were gone, as only Sasuke could have the Sharingan. However, this just brought back up the question of how Sasuke was alive, Naruto just couldn't figure it out.

"Heh, looks like Sasuke-teme doesn't have a chance against this guy does he Kyo?"

The fox kit gave another playful yip as he turned his attention back to the fight along with Naruto. Lee was explaining to Sasuke that he was using solely taijutsu in this fight as he began to use a new move on Sasuke. Naruto's visible eye widened as he saw the bandages around Lee's arm unwrap and thought of what he might be doing with it. He quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it to attach the bandage to the wall as he disappeared into the shadows to return to the exam room.

-------------

Sasuke was falling to the ground fast and Sakura was running to catch him. She dove out and managed to catch him before any damage could be done by his collision with the ground. Sasuke was still in a state of shock that he could be defeated so easily, by this weird guy with huge eyebrows and a green leotard no less. They looked to see what had stopped the boy when the noticed…a talking turtle telling Lee that he was not to use that move, and Lee was apologizing to the turtle for planning to use that move.

'…He is taking orders from a talking turtle…that's just weird, although I suppose it is not that weird for a boy with those eyebrows, haircut and outfit.' Sakura thought to herself.

'I lost…to this guy…damn' Sasuke thought.

'Hmmm I wish I had a talking turtle, then I could be like "hey everyone, look at my talking turtle" and they'd be all like "you don't have a talking turtle" and I'd show them the talking turtle and be all like "haha, told you, take that bitches. Now give me some pudding."' Their third team member thought…needless to say, he was quite a ways out there. Oh sure he _seemed _normal enough on the outside, but inside…well, he was a bit odd.

The three watched as the turtle asked Lee if he was prepared for his punishment and once he said that he was, there was a plume of smoke, and as it cleared, on top of the turtle stood…an older man wearing the same green leotard with the same hairstyle and the same humongous eyebrows standing in an unusual pose.

'Oh kami, there's TWO of them. What the hell is going on here.' Sakura thought.

'Why me?' Sasuke thought.

'Hmmm, I need my own dramatic entry and pose.' Thought their teammate.

The man who introduced himself as Maito Gai, the "Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha" began to ramble on about the "flames of youth" until he finally approached Lee.

"Lee my student, I told you not to use that move."

"I am sorry Gai-sensei, but I wanted to prove that hard work could be a genius."

"Lee, I understand that you would like to prove that the flames of youth burn brightly within you, but you have used a move that I have forbidden you to use, and I must now punish you, are you prepared?"

"Yes Gai-sensei."

Team seven watched as Gai approached Lee and proceeded to punch Lee, only to kneel down and hug Lee as tears streamed down their faces with a sunset in the background.

"Lee."

"Gai-sensei."

"Lee."

"Gai-sensei."

Team seven just watched on in confusion and mild discomfort.

'Good grief, what is with these two, and where the hell did that sunset come from.' Sakura thought.

'Why me?' Sasuke continued to sulk.

'I should put my left foot there, and hold my arm out there, and I'd appear in a plume of smoke and be all like "none of you shall leave alive, your death is assured" and they'll be like "NOOO, don't hurt us, we'll do whatever you say." And I'll be like "get me some pudding."'…yep, he was completely put of it.

Finally, the teacher and student broke their hug as Gai told Lee to go and run 200 laps around Konoha, until Sakura reminded him that he would miss the exam if he did that. So Gai told Lee that he would run his laps later and then turned to team seven.

"You must be Kakshi's students, so tell me, how is my eternal rival."

The members of team seven gaped at this strange man, there was no way that he could be as powerful as Kakashi.

Gai chuckled at their reaction, "I see that you don't believe me, but I assure you that Kakashi and I are eternal rivals."

The members of team seven blinked a few times, when suddenly, Gai was gone, and then he appeared behind them.

'No way, how can this weird, giant eyebrow guy be that fast.' Sakura thought.

'I couldn't track his movement at all.' Sasuke thought.

'THAT'S IT! He must use his eyebrows to hypnotize people, and then when they are entranced, he gets behind them. I should do something like that…is there a way to grow out your eyebrows?' Yup, there was something really wrong with that boy.

Gai moved up to remove the pinwheel that bound Lee's bandage to the wall when he noticed that right beside his pinwheel was a kunai that was also holding the bandage to the wall.

"Oh my, it looks that someone else was watching this fight and also decided to help young Sasuke. OH THE POWER OF YOUTH!"

Team seven was once again left staring at the strange jounin, but another thought was also running through Sasuke's mind. 'Someone else was watching us the whole time and I never even noticed him. What was he doing here and why was he getting involved in my fight.'

They all watched as Gai left, then Lee turned to them and explained that he was not the strongest genin from the leaf, but that his Teammate Neji was. The three members of team seven then proceeded to the exam room where they met with Kakashi in the hallway who gave them a speech wishing them luck.

-------------

Naruto had returned to the room where the exam was to be taken while team seven had met with Gai. He looked around the room and noticed that there were a lot of other ninja here to take the exam. He noticed his team and began to walk over towards them.

"Dosu, where were did you go?" Zaku asked.

"I just went to watch a fight that was taking place." Naruto replied.

Zaku and Kin wondered why he had just gone off to watch some people fight, but accepted it and gave him a nod. The three of them looked around the room at all of their opponents, trying to figure out which would pose an actual threat to them. The three of them watched as they noticed Lee entering the room, followed soon thereafter by team seven. They watched as other groups of leaf genin approached team seven to greet them. Kin was rather annoyed at the fan girl behavior that two of the girls were showing as they argued over some brooding boy who wasn't really paying much attention to either of them, and if he did show any emotion towards them, it was annoyance.

'That guy doesn't seem all that great to me, he seems pretty boring. Besides, Naruto is better looking then he is, that guy is just to…pretty for a boy.' She thought to herself.

"Well, it looks like all the rookies have arrived…hey wait, where is the loud mouth idiot?" A boy with a dog on his head asked team seven.

Both Sakura and Sasuke had tensed a bit at the mention of Naruto, while Naruto was remembering why he had not really enjoyed life in Konoha that much. The third member of team seven…well, who knows what he was thinking.

"Y-y-yes, where is N-N-Naruto-kun, I h-h-haven't seen him around w-w-when I w-w-was stalk…I m-m-mean, I h-h-haven't seen him around." Muttered a shy, pale girl. (sorry, I just had to do it, you can ignore this line if you are a rabid Naru/Hina fan)

"The dobe is on a training trip to get stronger, he won't be back for a while." Sasuke told them. That was the excuse that they were told to give anybody that asked where Naruto was.

"Huh, why are they wasting their time on that idiot. Oh well, I suppose that if anybody needed extra training, it was him." Kiba said as he laughed at his own insult.

Sakura and Sasuke had to restrain them selves from attacking the dog boy for that comment, they were still rather upset about the fact that Naruto had left. Their new teammate was ok and all, but he wasn't Naruto.

Naruto was surprised, why had they not just said that he was a missing nin, he was sure that it would not be any secret, he was sure that the council would tell the village so that they could rejoice that the demon was gone and that they had an excuse to kill him, so why were they covering up his departure.

"So who is this new guy that is on your team." Kiba asked them.

"This is Hokuro, he was put on our team to replace Naruto until he comes back, we needed another team member to participate in the chuunin exam." Sasuke replied.

"He's not so bad, he is kind of quiet though, so who know what he is thinking." Sakura added.

Indeed, who knew what went on within the strange mind of Hokuro.

Naruto was still wondering about why his team had covered his leaving when he noticed a white haired man with glasses approach the group. He introduced himself as Kabuto and explained to them that this was his seventh time taking the exam, and that he could give them information on any of the participants. Sasuke had asked for information on Rock Lee and Gaara and Kabuto revealed their information on his cards. He then began to tell them about other things when Naruto noticed that he said that the sound village was small and insignificant, and that none of them needed to worry about the team from the sound. Naruto looked over and noticed that Kabuto's comment had pissed off his two teammates. Kin always got angry about people calling her weak, and Zaku…well, he just got angry pretty easily.

"We'll show him whose weak." Kin muttered as Zaku smirked.

Naruto sighed, knowing that there was nothing that he could do to stop his teammates now. He gave another sigh as he gave them a nod and they began to travel towards Kabuto.

Kabuto dodged a few senbon needles thrown from Kin and jumped back in preparation to avoid a punch from Zaku, only to find that he wasn't able to move. The punch struck him in the gut and he doubled over in pain.

'What the hell, how come I couldn't move?' Kabuto thought, until he saw his shadow on the ground, 'Of course, it must be that new boy that Orochimaru-sama informed me of.'

All of the Konoha rookies were confused, they had seen Kabuto try to dodge the attack, but for some reason he couldn't. All were confused, except for one however.

'He was held in place by the shadows. Someone else in here can use shadows, most likely one of those three ninja from the sound. And here I thought it was only my family that used the shadows. But I didn't see anyone forming any hand seals that would make a jutsu like the kagemane jutsu, I didn't see anyone make any hand seals at all. Then how?"

"Remember this, the genin from the hidden Sound village will be chuunin when this is over." Zaku told them with a smirk.

Then, in a puff of smoke, Ibiki and a number of other ninja arrived.

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**A/N: **There you all go, another chapter. You know I spoil you all with these frequent updates. Anyone who wonders about Sasuke and Sakura's new teammate…well, I just felt like making him really random, enough said. Anyway, I don't have many general comments, so on to review responses

**Silver-Foxie: **umm, yes, Naruto and Kurenai is a nice pairing for those who don't mind pairing Naruto with an older woman, however, the question is this: What the hell does that have to do with anything regarding this story?

**Hell's Sorrow:** Like I said last chapter, I am not trying to convert anyone to any other pairing, people are free to choose whichever pairing they like. I was just kidding about the whole being sad thing, and Naru/Saku is my second least favorite pairing with Naruto, I just still happen to read it. You are free to like or dislike any pairing you choose.

**Endolphins: **Well……that certainly is an interesting idea for where the plot will go, but I assure you that Zaku will not fall in love with Gaara and Gaara will not have children. As for the other Naru/Kin stories, one is the story White, and the other I don't remember the title of, but it was a short one shot and not all that great. Also, you've caught on to me thoughts on who is good and evil. The sound village is always portrayed as bad, but they are just following orders from Orochimaru, I mean, Haku did the same for Zabuza, but no one considers him evil, do they.

**Skarm: **It seems like you wanted an already developed character on team seven. However, no one was changing teams, so the only given character I could have put on their team is possibly Hanabi, and I didn't want to do that.

**Vegeta the 3rd: **I said that if he learns the rasengan, it will only be from Jiraiya, because if they had it on a scroll, don't you think more people would have learned it by now? As for learning jutsus from the foxes, you apparently missed that they can't use jutsu because they lack opposable thumbs.

Rant time!

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Today's rant is on the high school fics and adding in the random crap ideas for fics.

Once again, to start out stating things simply, WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA! Who sat there and decided, "Hey, I've got all these characters living in a cool ninja world with ninja abilities, what could be better…I know! Let's take away all there powers and put them in high school so that instead of going through amazing life threatening adventures, they reenact all of the high school angst and depression that I go through. The would be so much better than ninja fighting. What kind of half witted idiots are writing these things. I don't care about your high school experiences reenacted through the Naruto characters. This is an anime, not damn Dawson's creek.

On a related side rant, we have the idiots that write these kinds of stories: Know your stars: Naruto style, Whose line is it anyway: Naruto style, Elimidate: Naruto style. What Idiots are making these stories. Adding Naruto style to a TV or game show does not make a good idea or a good fic, you are wasting my time and that of others because NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR CRAPPY STORY!

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Well, that's it, a short rant, but it is 5:15 A.M. and I don't feel like writing more

Till next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Well, I just now figured out that the default setting for my account was to block anonymous reviews. I did not know that, so I have now enabled it for any people without accounts who feel the need to review. However, if this is abused by any overzealous Naru/Hina or Sasu/Saku fans, then I will switch it back, so don't abuse the privilege. That being said…on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

"You three from the sound, what do you think you are doing. There will be no fighting at this point in the exam, is that clear?" Ibiki yelled at the three sound genin.

"Heh, sorry, guess we were just a bit excited." Zaku replied with a smirk..

"Ok, everyone shut up and take your seats so we can get this test started."

So all of the genin in the room found their assigned seats for the exam and began to mentally prepare themselves for the coming exam. Naruto took his seat next to some random genin from the hidden Rain village. He listened as Ibiki ran through the rules of the exam.(Again, you've probably read or seen this many times, so it's unnecessary.) Naruto smirked a bit at the rules, there was no way that they could ever catch him cheating. They may have been good, but they would never suspect what he could do, or more specifically in this case, what Kyo could do.

"All right, you can all begin your tests…now."

Naruto watched as all of the genin in the room, began to look over the test. He himself looked at his test and chuckled under his breath. He had no idea where to even start on any of these problems. He watched as all of the other genin began to find various ways to cheat to get the answers. He figured that he should get started finding the answers, so he leaned his head forward to create a shadow on the desk. Kyo then merged into the shadows and traveled to the shadow made by his head.

"Ok, Kyo, can you go find out some of the answers for me?"

Kyo gave a quiet yip to answer him, then he traveled around the room to gather some answers.

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'Damn, these are hard questions, they can't possibly expect most of the genin in here to know the answers to these problems.' Sakura thought to herself. 'I know that I can answer these, and that Sasuke will do well also, but I have no idea how Hokuro will do, we don't know much about him or how smart he is, I wonder if he will be able to get through this.'

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Hokuro was not really thinking about the test, instead, he had been sidetracked by the pale girl beside him with indigo hair.

'Why is her hair pointy in the back, it looks kind of weird.' (Ok, I am sorry again, I just can't help but take a few cheap shots at her sometimes, but seriously, why _does _she have her hair pointed outwards in the back.)

'Maybe she uses it for some attack, where she attacks them with a hair spike on the back of her head. It certainly would be useful for when an enemy sneaks up on you. I should try to make a spike out of my hair, then I would be menacing.'

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't even realized that half of the allotted time had passed and he was still lost in his thoughts.

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Naruto had been writing down answers as Kyo was bringing them to him. No one suspected that he had a fox hidden in the shadows giving him the answers. He looked around the room to see how his other teammates were doing, and they seemed to be struggling a bit.

"Hey Kyo." Naruto whispered, "Go give the answers to Zaku and Kin-chan."

Kyo agreed and left Naruto once again, he figured that he had a while until the final question was revealed, so he watched to see how some of the other genin were cheating, since he figured that most weren't answering the questions on knowledge alone. He noticed that the red haired sand genin was using sand to form…an eye? That was a new one to him, rather strange. He watched as one girl was using mirrors on the ceiling to copy answers (ok, does anyone else think that those looked _really _obvious in the show, and think she would have been caught easily?). He noticed that Sasuke was using his Sharingan to copy the movements of another genin as he wrote. He noticed that Ino girl and saw that she was…asleep? Maybe she was unconscious, he figured that there was something here that he just didn't understand. There were other people around the room cheating various ways, many of which he didn't really figure out. He looked over at his replacement on team seven and saw that he was just staring out in to space, seemingly unfazed.

'He must have some sort of strange sight technique, or maybe a mental jutsu. Quite an interesting replacement they found for me.'

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'I wonder what the world would be like if trees were sentient(alive for those with lesser vocabularies). They are awfully big, so would they have enslaved humans? But they burn so easily, so would we rule over them? Maybe we would get along in peace and prosper with the help of each other. That would be cool, I wish that trees were alive.'…yeah, he was completely gone again.

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Kin kept looking over the test questions, wondering how in the hell they were supposed to figure out any of these problems. She noticed many of the other ninja cheating, but she couldn't really think of many ways that she herself could find out the answers from others. She let out a sigh until she noticed that the shadow formed by her head was moving. She watched as the shadow began to twist around until it formed a number followed by some words. She stared at it for a second when she realized that this was the answer to one of the questions.

'This must be Naruto's work, I really owe him one for helping me out here.' She thought to herself as she glanced over at Naruto and saw him watching all of the other genin.

"Thanks Kyo, tell Naruto thanks for the help."

Kyo gave another small yip, fearing that if he spoke to her, she might freak out and give herself away after all of the work he has done.

Kin smiled as she watched the shadow slip away again, this time heading towards Zaku.

'That guy, what would we do without him.'

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Naruto glanced at the clock and noticed that it was about time for them to reveal the tenth question.

"Alright everyone, it is now time for the tenth question, however the rules are a little different for this one."

Naruto listened as Ibiki explained to all of those remaining the rules of the tenth question. He wasn't that worried, he figured that he could get the answer fairly easily with Kyo's help. He looked around the room as he saw genin after genin raise their hand and leave the exam, afraid of staying a genin forever.

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'I am pretty sure that I can answer this question, but I don't want to take a chance and fail, causing Sasuke-kun to stay a genin forever, and we have no idea whether or not Hokuro could possibly get the final question right. They may be mad at me for this, but I can't hold them back because of me.' Sakura was thinking to herself.

Her hand was now shakily rising into the air.

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'There is just so much pressure from this question, I don't want to give up, but I also don't want to be a genin forever. Besides, what would Zaku do if I caused him to remain a genin forever…what would Naruto do, I don't want to let them down. I hope that they will forgive me for this.'

Kin too found her hand slowly lifting into the air.

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'Why is the village hidden in the Sand inside the wind country? Sand and wind don't really have anything to do with one another, shouldn't they have thought of a different name for the country or the village? And for that matter, why is the village hidden in the leaves the capital village of the fire country…no, no, this doesn't make any sense at all. Hey, the pointy hair girl looks nervous about something…Oh well, I'm sure it is nothing that important.' Hokuro thought to himself. He didn't even realize that the tenth question had already been issued, or that he might soon be remaining a genin forever.

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Naruto watched as he saw both Kin and Sakura raising their hands. He couldn't let Kin quit, he knew that they could manage this tenth question. He also didn't want to see his old team fail as he was sure that they could handle this tenth question easily. He bent forward and whispered something to Kyo, who gave another soft yip and disappeared into the shadows yet again as he began to form some seals with one hand underneath his desk.

Kin was raising her hand when she suddenly felt a resistance against her arm. She watched as her arm was caught in a shadow and was now being lowered back down to the desk.

'Naruto, what are you doing, I am not just doing this for me, but I am doing this for you guys also. I hope that you know what you are doing.'

Sakura likewise was feeling a pull on her arm that pulled it back down to the desk. Her arm was pressed down on the desk and she was unable to lift it back up into the air.

'What the hell is going on here, why can't I move my arm? I can't let Sasuke-kun remain a genin for ever, I have to quit now so that we can be better prepared.'

Meanwhile, Shikamaru was watching these events unfold with curiosity.

'There it is again, someone is using the shadows again. But who is it? He seems to be holding two peoples arms down, but he is holding down the arms of people from two different villages. From what I saw before, the one using shadows is probably from the sound, but why is he worried about a team from Konoha giving up?'

As time passed, and no one who was able to was raising their hand. Ibiki figured that this was as many people as were going to quit.

"Well, if that is everyone who is going to quit, then there is nothing left to tell you except…You all pass!" Ibiki answered with a smile.

Ibiki then proceeded to explain to all of the genin why they passed without a question as many genin were asking questions about what was going on.

'It's a good thing that Naruto stopped me from quitting, thank you Naruto.' Kin thought.

'Well, I guess that it was a good thing that someone kept my arm down, but who? I don't think that Sasuke-kun or Hokuro know any abilities like that, so who would have kept my hand down and why would they do it?' Sakura thought.

"Congratulations everyone, you have all moved on to the second stage of the chuunin exams." Ibiki told them all with a smile.

'I passed? Damn I am good, I passed without even realizing that I did anything.' Hokuro thought to himself.

Suddenly a large ball cam crashing through the window as a woman who revealed herself as Mitarashi Anko appeared, saying that she was the second examiner. She had a short exchange with Ibiki about how many students were left after the first exam, and then threatened to cut the number in half. She told all of the genin to follow her.

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All of the genin found themselves in front of a dark and foreboding forest that they were told was a training ground referred to as the Forest of Death. She explained to all of the genin the rules which involved getting a scroll opposite of the one that they were given from another of the teams in the forest. They all then proceeded to one of the gates that would lead into the forest as they awaited the start of the second test. Suddenly, all of the gates opened and the genin rushed into the forest.

"So Zaku, Dosu, what do you think that we should do?" Kin asked her teammates.

"Isn't it obvious, we find a team, beat them up, and take their scroll, it's as simple as that." Zaku replied with a smirk. (I make him smirk a lot, don't I)

Kin smirked in return, while Naruto sighed. Why did his teammates always want to fight? Didn't they realize that he or Kyo could easily sneak up on a team with their shadow skills and take their scroll without them knowing?

Later that day, the team of sound genin ran across a team from the hidden rain village. Of course, Zaku and Kin wanted to fight them. Naruto knew that he couldn't stop the two of them when they got like this, so he sighed in resignation and joined in on the assault.

Naruto managed to take down his opponent fairly easily as he surprised him from the shadows, the rain nin never saw it coming. The shadows pooled around his feet before they suddenly shot upwards and clamped shut, like a bear trap, making a dome of shadows. While he was trapped in the shadows, Naruto began to strike out at him from what seemed like every direction. (think of it like Haku's ice mirrors, only in a shadow dome, and he isn't moving faster, they just can't see anything in the shadows.) It didn't take long for the repeated blows to take their toll on the rain nin as he collapsed unconscious.

Zaku faired similarly in his fight. The rain nin had no idea what Zaku was capable of, so he made the mistake of charging in for close range comment. The rain nin knew that this would probably turn out badly when he saw the smirk on Zaku's face, but it was to late to do anything about it now. He held his arms out and gave a shout "Zankuuha." The rain nin then found himself not charging forward, but flying backwards until he hit a tree…hard, and fell unconscious.

Kin had grabbed her scythe and charged her opponent as they engaged in a battle of weapons. The rain nin was using a set of metal claws as his weapon and the two were exchanging attacks and blocks in what seemed to be a fairly even battle. However, when the rain nin pulled his hand back to make a slash with his claw, he found a chain wrapped around his arm, pulling it back. He took a second to look back at what was happening, and that was his last mistake. As he looked at where the chain had come from, he was met with a blow to his stomach from the butt of the scythe. As he doubled over in pain, he then met with a swift kick to the head, knocking him out.

The three of them searched the unconscious ninja and found that they had a heaven scroll, just what they needed since they had an earth scroll. The three of them traveled for a short while towards the tower until it began to get dark, at which point they decided to set up camp. They set up some traps in the area and spent a bit of time talking to each other before they decided to go to sleep. Zaku was going to keep first watch, followed by Kin, and lastly Naruto.

Zaku was sitting around, watching the small fire that they had made die down. He sat there thinking about whatever came to mind when he noticed that someone was suddenly inside their camp. He held his hands out and readied himself to attack. As the light of the fire revealed the face of the intruder however, Zaku's face went from one of determination to one of confusion.

"Orochimaru-sama, what are you doing here, you shouldn't be in here during the chuunin exams."

Orochimaru chuckled lightly before he answered, "I had some business that I had to attend to, however I will not be staying in this forest for long and I have a mission for you three."

"A mission right now? In the middle of the chuunin exams?"

"Yes, I want you to inform Kin of this mission, but do not tell Naruto about it. You will need to take him with you so that it seems like a normal occurrence of the chuunin exam, but do not tell him about the mission objective or the target, is that clear?"

Zaku hesitated for a moment, wondering why he could not inform his friend about their mission. After a short period of silence, he responded.

"Alright, what is the mission Orochimaru-sama?"

"Your mission is to kill a leaf genin by the name of Uchiha Sasuke."

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**A/N: **Yet another chapter. Sorry that the fight scenes are kind of weak, but this was not a very important fight, so I went through it kind of quickly. I will try to make all of the more important fights better.

Also on a side note: in encouragement of the Naruto/Sound girls pairings, both **Dreamer of all Things Radical**, and **skarm** have Naru/Tayuya fics going that are pretty nice. A lot of you have checked them out already, and I figure I should promote their stories since my actual devious reason for reviewing their stories was to get more people to possibly check out my story, I figured I should return the favor. Besides, I just like to promote Naru/sound girls stories, because the "evil" girls need love too.

Anyway, to the rant!

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Today's rant will be the yaoi rant since a lot of people seem to want that rant.

First off, to give the traditional disclaimer for any talk against yaoi. This is not a gay-bashing rant, but a rant against the abundance of yaoi stories…and fangirls, but I like to blame them for everything because it is fun.

Anyhow, the point is that there are way too many yaoi fics. It is the only thing that can outnumber the Naru/Hina or Sasu/Saku fics. The fact of the matter is, I am a straight male, and I don't want to read yaoi stories, it's just something I don't like to do. If you are gay, I don't care about you writing a yaoi story, however, I feel that the overabundance is due to, once again, the fangirls (because it is just oh so much fun).

Now I won't be hypocritical; while I don't do it all that often, I have read yuri stories because, well, I'm a guy(somewhat shallow, I know, but that is the case with most people.). However, if I think that two girls in the story are attractive, I don't feel the need to go write a yuri fic. The fangirls, however, decide "Oh, look at the cute boys, they are so cute together, let's go write an excessively large number of yaoi fics." I swear, if you based the plot of Naruto off of the fics on this site, one would swear that the village of Konoha would be doomed to obscurity since all of the males are gay, and thus there will never be any children. I mean, poor Naruto, he is obviously straight, and yet he is whored out to not only every girl, but every guy as well. He and Sakura are basically whored out to every character in the Naruto universe, male or female.

And of course, the vast majority of these yaoi fics are the Naru/Sasu fics. Now people, tell me this. If Naruto outright stated that he thought of Sasuke as a brother to him, doesn't that make it abundantly creepy if he loved him. Besides, Sasuke put his hand through Naruto's chest, and it sure as hell wasn't just trying to feel up his chest, it was a murder attempt people. Make all the arguments you want, the fact of the matter is, the paring is just not likely and kind of creepy (as much so as the Naru/Tsunade without an age change, although I have still read those anyway.).

And lastly, the point that if you are going to write a yaoi, LABEL THE DAMN STORY AS SUCH! I also have fallen into the same situation as one of my reviewers, reading through a story, only to suddenly find Sasuke and Naruto making out, at which point, you just kind of repeatedly hit the back button and slowly back away from the computer. So simply put, just label your stories if they are yaoi.

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That's it for today's rant, until next time.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **Sorry that I have taken longer to update then I usually do, but first I had some computer programming projects that kept me from writing, and after that, I bought Suikoden V and have been spending lots of time on that, because while I want to keep my readers happy, I also really love the Suikoden series, and in all fairness, the Suikoden series was around first. That being said, I would also like to ask; does anyone else think that most of the stories being posted lately really suck? I mean honestly, I read about 1 or 2 out of every 50 updates or new stories, because the rest sound really stupid or generic. Anyway, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

As the three sound genin rushed through the forest, Naruto could not help but wonder what they were doing. After they had all woken up, Zaku had called Kin aside and talked to her for a little while, before they both returned and told Naruto that they had something else that they needed to do. Every time that he asked them what they were all going to do, they would just reply that it was nothing that he needed to worry about. He knew that they were hiding something from him, he wondered what it was, but figured that if it were important, then they would tell him.

Naruto pondered these things as they ran through the trees, careful to avoid any other teams that they might run across. A sense of dread was coming to Naruto as they continued to run through the forest. Meanwhile, Kin was both confused and torn over this turn of events.

'Why are we not allowed to tell Naruto about this mission, is he somehow tied to our target? I want to tell him so that he can be prepared for whatever may come, but I can't. Naruto, please be able to forgive us for whatever may happen, I don't know what I would do if you can't forgive me.'

Zaku was thinking along similar lines. He knew that if they were not allowed to tell Naruto, then it is probably something that he won't like doing. He didn't want to put his first real friend in a situation like that, but he was a ninja of the sound and the mission came first before friendship. He, like Kin, also just hoped that his friend would be able to forgive them for whatever happened.

As they ran through the forest, they could suddenly see three figures in the distance. Naruto saw that his two teammates were beginning to slow down and figured that these three had something to do with what his teammates needed to do. As they dropped down into the clearing, Naruto looked forward and could now tell who these three figures were and froze; they were his old teammates, Sakura and Sasuke, along with their new teammate Hokuro. He saw that Hokuro was unconscious as was Sasuke, but Sasuke looked like he was in pain as opposed to Hokuro. Only Sakura seemed to lack injury as she stood between her two teammates and the sound genin. That sense of dread welling up inside of Naruto was now increasing, and it would not lessen as he listened to the exchange between Sakura and his teammates.

"What do you three want, my teammates are unconscious and we have no scroll anymore, so just leave us alone." Sakura asked the three of them.

Zaku gave a menacing chuckle at the girl's words. He wasn't really fond of killing this "Sasuke" character, feeling that there was probably a tie between him and Naruto, but he was hoping to scare her into not putting up a fight, so that casualties would be minimal, and thus any pain dealt to Naruto would be minimal.

"We are here because we were ordered by Orochimaru-sama to kill Uchiha Sasuke, so move aside unless you want to die too."

Naruto couldn't move and was having a difficult time breathing. He had a feeling that he wouldn't like what his teammates had to do, but he didn't think that his teammates had to do something like this. Zaku told Sakura that they were ordered by Orochimaru to kill him, but why did Orochimaru want them to kill Sasuke, it just didn't make any sense.

"I don't know what that snake freak has against Sasuke but I won't let you hurt Sasuke-kun." Sakura replied to the threat as she pulled out a kunai and lowered herself into a fighting stance.

Kin had been watching Sakura as she spoke and couldn't help but feel that she had known about her in some way. She had felt that way ever since they had seen here in that alleyway with the sand genin. She was sure that she had never met the girl before, but she still felt that she knew of her somehow. She began to truly look her over to see if she could figure this out when her gaze stayed upon her hair. Pink hair, it was something that should have been blaringly obvious, but she had not really paid much attention before. Suddenly, something clicked in her head.

_Flashback_

"_I always had such a big crush on her, but she was always swooning over our other teammate. Every time I tried to be nice to her, she would yell at me or hit me for annoying her. She would do the same thing if I insulted or fought with our teammate. I guess I never really stood much of a chance."_

"_What did she look like?"_

"_Well, she was a bit taller than me, probably around your height. She had emerald eyes and pink hair. She tended to yell a lot and sometimes get very violent."_

"_Sounds like an annoying, bright colored girly girl to me."_

_End Flashback_

"You…It's you." Kin said through gritted teeth.

Sakura looked at the girl strangely. She was sure that she had never seen this girl before, so why did this girl seem to know her and seem to be so angry at the sight of her. Her musings were cut short, however, when she felt the force of the blow to her stomach from the butt of a scythe. She looked up and saw that it was that girl who had attacked her, and it didn't seem like her assault was going to stop there.

As Sakura had doubled over in pain, Kin swept Sakura's legs out from under her, causing Sakura to fall to the ground. Kin was no longer thinking about ninja moves or technique; she only wanted to cause this girl pain. As Sakura hit the ground, Kin followed after her, throwing punch after punch directed at her face, Sakura could do little more than try to hold her arms up to try and block some of the blows to her face. Kin was relentless in her attack as she began screaming at Sakura.

"You, I hate girls like you; stupid fan girl types. You are weak but you don't even try to get stronger, thinking only of some boy, always relying on your teammates to do all of the work and to save your ass if things go wrong. I hate you, you are useless, weak, but most of all, I hate you because you hurt him, you hurt him you stupid bitch, you hurt…" Her screaming was cut short as she felt someone grab her wrist. She jerked her head back to find a face wrapped in bandages; one very sad looking eye staring back at her.

"Why are you stopping me?" She screamed at him.

"Kin, would you just shut up! Do you even realize what you were saying, what you almost said?" Zaku replied.

Kin thought through everything that she had just said to the girl and gasped, realizing that she almost gave away what had happened to Naruto. She mumbled a soft apology as she backed off of the girl.

Sakura was beginning to stand once more, not in the best of conditions after the beating that she received. She was confused by the words that this girl was screaming at her. She had not caught much, but she could make out the last bit of what she was yelling at her. Who was it that she hurt? She didn't really know many people outside of Konoha, and she certainly didn't know anyone from the sound village. There was only one person that she could remember hurting that wasn't in Konoha, and he…wait, she didn't know where he was, could it be that this girl knew where he was, what had happened to him.

"Wait, this person you said that I hurt, do you know where he is, do you know anything about Nar…" Her sentence was never completed as a swift chop to back of her neck knocked her out. She had forgotten to pay attention to a certain bandaged ninja that he snuck up behind her.

"I'm sorry about this Sakura-chan" Naruto whispered once he was sure that she could no longer hear him, "But I can't let you find out, not right now." Naruto lowered his head down, knowing that things were only going to get worse, for his teammates were still ordered to kill Sasuke. With his head lowered, he never noticed the flying kick directed at his head until it was too late. He was sent flying back until he crashed into a tree.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Naruto looked up to see the boy with the large eyebrows and green jumpsuit.

'Dammit, how many distractions are we going to have.' Zaku thought to himself

'…eyebrows.' Thought Kin.

"How could you all do that to the lovely Sakura-chan, I will stop you in order to protect her, prepare to face the wrath of the beautiful green beast of Konoha!" The boy yelled enthusiastically.

"Yeah, whatever, just take her and go. Our job is only to kill the Uchiha anyway." Zaku answered with a snort.

"I can not let you do that either, I will not abandon a fellow leaf shinobi, so I shall stop you all right now."

With that, the boy rushed forward and delivered a blow to Zaku's stomach, causing him to double over in pain. He then turned his attention to Naruto.

"You, you are the one who hurt Sakura-san, and for that, I, Rock Lee, shall now hurt you." The boy now rushed at Naruto, readying himself for another strike.

Naruto saw the blow coming and fell back into his fighting stance as Kyo, who had been hiding in the shadows up to this point, began to form a barrier in front of Naruto to stop the initial blow. However, the boy slid to the side of the barrier, almost to quickly to see as he came around the barrier wall and dealt a blow to Naruto's chest, knocking him back a bit. Lee attempted to sweep Naruto's legs out from under him, but this was avoided by Naruto, who jumped over his leg and lashed out with a swift kick to his head.

Lee staggered for a second at the attack before he regained his composure and began his assault again. He lashed out with a right handed punch, but Naruto turned so that his side faced Lee and at the last possible second, Naruto simply leaned back just enough to avoid the punch, leaving a small opening in Lee's defense. As Lee's arm was outstretched just above Naruto's chest, Naruto let his weight fall back as he brought his knee up to hit Lee square in the gut. Before Naruto fell on the ground from letting his weight fall back, he brought his hands up and propelled himself off of the ground and back flipped back into his stance.

Lee was surprised. He had spent a great deal of time studying taijutsu, but this was a form that he had never seen or heard of. It seemed that this guy was trying to bend around his attacks to leave an opening in his guard through which he could attack. This boy was truly skilled. There was no other choice, he would have to use that move, even though Gai-sensei told him not to use it. He began his charge at this bandaged boy again, this time he made no motion to attack until the last minute, so that his strike could not be predicted and bent around. At the latest possible moment, he dropped down and sent a kick upwards into Naruto's jaw, sending him up into the air. Lee then appeared behind him as he unwrapped his bandages and they began to wrap around Naruto. Naruto remembered seeing him use this move on Sasuke, and he began to worry about what he was going to do. By this point, all but his head were wrapped in bandages as Lee grabbed him as they both began to plummet downward headfirst, spinning as they approached the ground. Naruto saw everything around him and he caught a glimpse of Zaku. It appeared that he was beginning to get up. This gave Naruto an idea, it was going to hurt, but he didn't really have many other options. As he approached the ground, he yelled out to Kyo.

"Kyo, make a shadow hole on the ground."

Kyo complied as the shadows on the ground began to pool into one large hole. Lee had intended to push off from the boy when he felt the beginning of an impact between his opponent and the ground, but the impact that he expected never came as they began to sink into the hole of shadows. Everything was dark for a moment before he saw light approaching once again. The two of them shot back up out of the hole that they had fallen into and as they neared the max height from the force with which they were shot out, their spinning began to slow down. Naruto was facing towards Zaku with Lee still holding on behind him.

"Zaku, use your Zankuuha now!" Naruto yelled out towards his teammate. Zaku wasn't to sure about this, but he figured that Naruto knew what he was doing, so he brought his hands up into the air as he yelled "Zankuuha!"

The air blast slammed into Naruto who was then sent flying back very quickly. Lee had no time to react and release his hold as the two of them soon smashed into a tree. Since Lee was behind Naruto, he had been sandwiched between the force from hitting the tree, and the force of being hit by Naruto. The attack had hurt Naruto, but the effect was much worse on Lee.

The two of them fell back down towards the ground. Kin ran over to cut away all of the bandages that Naruto was wrapped in while Lee struggled to get to his feet. He stumbled over towards Sakura, who was just beginning to regain consciousness. She looked up at him with a confused expression, wondering what he was doing here.

"I am sorry Sakura-san, it looks like I failed to protect you." Lee told her before he fell down, unable to remain conscious.

Sakura looked over at her three attackers to try and gauge what all had happened. It looked as though Lee had not managed to cause any lasting damage to any of them. The bandaged boy seemed a bit worse for the wear, but still able to fight. She felt bad that Lee had done all of this to protect her. She would be sure to thank him for all of this once he regained consciousness, that is, if they are all still alive. Sakura felt that there was some question that she meant to ask these three, but she could not remember what it was. That was not important right now, she needed to fight these three, to try and protect Sasuke.

She stood up and fell into her fighting stance again, prepared to fight to protect Sasuke from these sound ninja. She knew that if the three of them managed to beat Lee while sustaining no lasting damage, she didn't stand much of a chance of beating the three of them. She readied herself for their attack when she suddenly saw a large ball rolling towards the three sound genin. The three of them jumped back to avoid the large ball when they could suddenly no longer move freely.

"Kagemane…successful." Came a lazy voice from behind them.

Sakura looked to see that Shikamaru was behind them and was apparently keeping them from moving. She could only assume that the large rolling ball was Chouji, but where was Ino?

"The three of you art trapped in my kagemane jutsu, you are no longer able to move on your own." Shikamaru told them from behind. He was surprised however, when he heard one of the chuckling. He looked over and noticed that it was the one with the bandages that seemed to be laughing.

"Like you are going to stop me with a technique like this." Naruto said as he began to melt away into the shadows. He was really glad that he had learned how to do this without hand seals. He could have used Kyo to get him out, but he preferred to hide Kyo so that he could hold an element of surprise in any situation.

Shikamaru stared wide eyed as the enemy began to escape his kagemane so easily. This was the one who was using all of those shadow techniques back at the first part of the exam. But he thought that his family were the only ones who could use shadow techniques. How was this guy able to use them, and without hand seals no less. He didn't know where the boy was now and he was a bit worried because he couldn't fight the boy and hold his teammates at the same time. Ino and Chouji had better make a move soon or else he would be in serious trouble. He then looked over and saw Ino's body slump over in the bushes, then he heard the girl from the sound team speak up.

"Alright Shikamaru, I've got control over her now, release the kagemane." Ino told Shikamaru from Kin's body.

Shikamaru complied and released the jutsu on her when she began to speak again.

"Hey you, guy with the bandages, you better come on out and stop this attack, or else I'll kill your teammate here." She yelled out into the forest as she brought a kunai up to her throat. Both she and Shikamaru looked around to try and see if the bandaged guy was going to show himself when suddenly Shikamaru felt a kunai press against his throat. Behind him was Naruto, who had one hand holding a kunai to Shikamaru's throat and the other holding onto his chain whip, which was wrapped around Chouji's neck. Apparently he had chosen to first deal with Chouji before he showed himself to the two of them.

"You get out of her body unless you want to lose both of your teammates." Naruto answered in a calm and collected tone.

Ino was a bit panicked at this point. Her having control of the girl was their main bargaining chip, but now that was gone. She knew that she couldn't really kill the girl without killing herself, and if she waited too long to respond, she might end up losing both of her teammates, and it wouldn't be long after that before they killed her, Sakura and Sasuke. She did the only thing she could do and released the jutsu, returning to her own body. Naruto then removed the kunai from Shikamaru's neck, only to deliver a swift chop to his neck, rendering him unconscious.

With Shikamaru unconscious, his hold on Kin and Zaku was broken, so Zaku quickly turned towards Chouji and launched a zankuuha blast at him while Naruto released the chain whip from around his neck. The blast sent Chouji into a nearby tree, rendering him unconscious as well.

Meanwhile, Ino and Sakura were busy fending off an angry Kin. She still had a lot of anger to work off from earlier when her attack on Sakura was interrupted. Both Ino and Sakura were using kunai to try to block the assault of Kin's scythe as blow after blow was thrown at the two girls. Kin then began to throw some senbon needles at the two girls which they easily dodged. They never noticed the strings and bells attached to the needles. Their vision was soon filled with images of multiple copies of Kin, and neither of them knew which one was the real thing. The real Kin had, unnoticed by Sakura and Ino, jumped back and began to form some hand seals. She suddenly disappeared into the ground, only to pop out of the ground behind the two girls, grabbing each of them by their hair.

"You stupid fan girl types and your vanity, you probably care more about your hair then you do about becoming strong kunoichi. Now look where your vanity has gotten you, your both trapped by your precious hair." Kin said to them, making sure that she was careful with her words this time.

Sakura and Ino were getting rather angry with this girl; who was she to judge them like that, she didn't even know them. Besides, she had long hair too, where did she get off criticizing them. They both took the kunai in their hand and sliced off a portion of their long hair in order to escape her hold on their hair. They began to ready themselves for battle again when they were both suddenly hit by a zankuuha blast. The two of them struggled to their feet, knowing that they had no other choice then to fight. Suddenly, they felt a very strong power behind them. They turned around and found Sasuke, covered in strange dark purple markings and emitting a very ominous chakra. Sasuke looked at the two of them as he began to speak.

"Sakura, who did this to you?" (yep, that's obviously a sign of love right there…but this is not rant time, so I digress.)

Sasuke caught her eyes glancing over towards Kin and he began to charge towards her. He threw a punch at her, only it wasn't her that it hit. Naruto had made his way over and took the blow for her. The punch hurt a fair amount, but Sasuke was by no means a taijutsu expert, so it wasn't anything that would stop Naruto right then. Sasuke didn't seem very happy to have anybody get in the way of his attack, so he turned his attention towards Naruto as he began to form some hand seals. Naruto recognized those hand seals as the hand seals for his grand fireball attack and he quickly brought up a wall of shadows to block the attack. The fireball slammed into the wall, but was unable to get past it, and the attack soon dissipated.

Zaku decided that this was an opening to attack and so he raised his arm and sent a zankuuha blast at Sasuke. Sasuke was knocked back a bit, but not enough to deter him from his rage. He suddenly appeared behind Zaku as he grabbed his arms, pulling them back at an unnatural angle as Zaku yelled in pain.

"Your rather proud of these arms of yours, aren't you. I guess that I will just have to break them, won't I." Sasuke said with a smirk.

He was soon forced to release his grip, however, when a fist of shadows popped out of the ground and hit him in the jaw. Sasuke was beginning to get annoyed that his fun kept getting interrupted by this bandaged guy. He lashed out with a punch towards Naruto, only to have it caught. Naruto lifted his head up and looked Sasuke in the eye.

Sasuke suddenly recoiled at the sight of the visible eye. Sakura was able to see the eye also and was frozen in shock at the sight. She hadn't paid attention before, but now that she saw them, those eyes were familiar to her. Those eyes that haunted her dreams ever since their owner had left. The two of them were so caught off guard at the sight of his eye that they hadn't noticed the two other sound ninja disappearing into the shadows with the help of Kyo. Naruto soon let go of Sasuke's fist and began to disappear into the shadows himself.

With the danger gone, Sasuke's anger was settling and he was beginning to regain control of himself, particularly after the shock of having seen that eye. The effects of the curse seal soon receded from him and he was soon back to normal. Both Sasuke and Sakura were fairly quiet that night. Those who had helped them had all regained consciousness and soon team 10 had left so that they could actually finish the exam. Lee's team had also come to pick up Lee and take him with them. Sasuke and Sakura left sitting around a small campfire along with their unconscious teammate. One thought was going through the minds of the two of them.

'His eyes, they were just like Naruto's.'

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**A/N:** And that is the end of this chapter. For the record for those of you reading, Sasuke and Sakura don't know that it is Naruto, they are just shocked by the similarity they see in the eye. Call it nostalgia if you will. Point is, still no one know who he is, and no questions about anyone recognizing him, because I am not giving away the plot, tough luck. Anyway, a few reviews and other questions to respond to.

To the unregistered reviewer who said that Naruto wielding a chain whip was kind of thuggish, realize that a chain whip and a chain are somewhat different. Blades and weights are attached to regular chains. A chain whip is not a regular chain, if you need to see a picture, go to weaponmasters(dot)com and look under the whips section.

To the unregistered reviewer who was complaining that I should blame the fanboys just as much as the fangirls, I say this. I insult the fangirls because…its fun, and because I can. I know that they are not to blame for everything, but these are only rants, not some kind of formal presentation. There will be bias and things of the like. Fangirls are just a fun and easy target, so I stick with that.

**Isisoftheunderground**: When I say that I have a review goal, that does not mean that I will not continue if I don't reach that amount. The goals are simply that, goals. I am actually rather against people who refuse to continue unless they receive a certain number of reviews, because if you are going to write a story, then whether it is popular or not, then you better try as hard as you can to finish it.

Anyway, on to the rant.

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The rant of the day will be the crossover fics.

Yes, now we step into territory that involves more of my readers, because I look through the profiles of my reviewers and see their favorite stories (so I know when you haven't put me on your favorite story list, so get to it) and see that some like crossovers, and many like Harry Potter. I happen to like neither, and in the interest of being unbiased, I'll now rant against these too.

Now this type of fic can't be blamed solely on the fangirls, as any random idiot can think that a crossover is a good idea. They think "Hey, you know what would be original, I should take these two shows/books/games that I like and just combine them into one story, that would be cool and original." Well I hate to break it to you, but it is not. One, because people always choose the same shows/books to combine with it (Inuyasha, Harry Potter, and now an increasing number of Full Metal Alchemist.) and Two, it is not cool, it is just combining two stories, there is nothing original about it, you are just putting one shows cast in another shows story where they don't even fit right.

First off, we have the Harry Potter crossovers. Now personally, I just don't like Harry Potter, and so I don't want to spend my time reading a crossover fic with Naruto, which I do like. Honestly, why would people combine Harry Potter characters with Naruto characters. Harry Potter characters are crappy wizards who can probably make a small lightning bolt if and only if they have their magic wand. Naruto characters can make giant dragons out of fire, in addition to various other ninja skills, all with the use of their bare hands. Seriously, it is no contest, putting the two together is just stupid.

Secondly, we have the Inuyasha crossovers. These idiots tend to think "Wait a second…Inuyasha is a half-demon…Naruto has a fox demon sealed inside of him…Shippo is a fox… HOLY HELL, THEIR THE EXACT SAME!" The fact of the matter is that they are rather different, one focusing on the battles between people using a ninja style, the other focusing on fights between demons in a more samurai like environment. The styles just don't mesh, that is how it goes.

The fact of the matter is, I am just not a supporter of crossovers because frequently it is someone just combining two stories thinking that makes it an original story when it is not. Each story should be left on its own, not involved with others that are completely different.

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And that's it for today, until the next chapter.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** I was right, it seems that more people then usual were slightly upset about the last rant on crossovers, however I will not take back my opinion. The fact of the matter is yes, not all crossovers are bad. I just happen to not like them. I know that it all really depends on the author, because if a writer is good enough, they can even make a good "Female Naruto is really a Uchiha who is taken away from the village by a super powered OC at the age of three to train and become stronger then all other ninja in the world by the age of 12 incest Naru/Sasu" story (though for that it would have to be a _really_ good author). Well, all of that said, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

The three sound genin sat in silence around the fire they had set up. They had stopped to set up camp, planning to travel to the tower and finish this part of the exam tomorrow. Both Kin and Zaku were nervous about starting a conversation, they were unsure about how Naruto was feeling, what he might have thought of them for trying to kill this person that he was so closely tied to. Kin had decided that this Sasuke character must have been Naruto's old teammate, since he was the teammate of the pink haired girl that Naruto had told her was his teammate. Naruto had just been in somewhat of a trance ever since they had left the fight, obviously still a bit shaken by the turn of events. After a long period of silence, Kin decided to take a chance and spoke up.

"Naruto…" She began, since no one was around to uncover his identity. Whatever she was planning to say was quickly cut short as Naruto spoke up.

"I am not mad at either of you." He said, practically reading their minds "You two were just following orders."

"Naruto, who was that guy?" Zaku asked.

"He and the pink haired girl were your old teammates, weren't they?" Kin added.

Naruto nodded to the two of them, letting them know that those were indeed his old teammates. Before the two of them could ask him anymore questions, he spoke up.

"I am sorry you two, but I need to some time alone to think about things." And with that, he went a short distance into the forest, leaving his teammates to think about thing themselves.

"Why do you think that guy had the cursed seal on him? If that is Orochimaru's way of giving a ninja more power, why would he give it to a leaf ninja?" Kin asked Zaku.

"I am not really sure why. I think that the cursed seal may also be a way for Orochimaru to hold a measure of control over a ninja, so he might have given it to that guy in an effort to gain some control over him. He may want him for some reason." Zaku answered.

"But if Orochimaru wants him so much, why would he give us a mission to kill him?"

"I think he told us to kill him so that while we attacked him, he would activate his cursed seal."

"What? But why would Orochimaru-sama do that? We could have been killed by that guy if Naruto hadn't interrupted. Why would he risk sacrificing us just to get some leaf ninja to activate his cursed seal?"

"I don't know Kin…I really just don't know."

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Naruto was sitting on a nearby rock looking out into the night sky. He was very confused and torn by this new turn of events.

'I can't be mad at Zaku and Kin. They were just following orders. And besides, I never told them that Sasuke was my old teammate, they couldn't have really know how this would affect me. Why did Orochimaru order them to kill Sasuke? Why does Orochimaru even care about the fate of a genin from Konoha? I don't know what to do anymore. I am a member of the sound village, but I don't want to hurt my old team. Why did it have to be like this?'

As Naruto was lost in thought, Kyo came out and gave a playful yip in an attempt to cheer Naruto up. Naruto gave a small laugh at the young fox that was playfully running around the rock on which he was seated. He soon fell back as he lay down on the rock to gaze up at the night sky. He gave a small sigh to himself as he spoke to his partner who had settled down for a nap on his chest..

"What am I going to do Kyo? I just don't know anymore."

"**_You'll think of something eventually. Just take things as they come for now, and whenever the time comes to make that choice, I am sure that you will make the right one._**"

"Thanks Kyo." Naruto replied as he let sleep overtake him.

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Naruto awoke the next morning and went to go and rejoin his teammates. The three of them continued on towards the tower to finish the second stage of the exam. They all arrived at the tower with little difficulty. They had managed to avoid any genin teams that might attack them and had reached the tower, where they opened their scrolls and were greeted by a random ninja that told them that they had passed, and that they had two days remaining until the third exam would start. They were given a room in the tower that they could stay in and they spent the next two days resting and waiting for all of the other teams to arrive. When they went to the arena at which the third stage of the exam would take place, they took note of all of the teams that had passed while the Sandaime gave a speech about the purpose of the chuunin exams and promoting goodwill between nations. Naruto noticed that five teams from Konoha had passed. All of the rookies that he had gone to the academy with, the team with the boy named Lee, and the team with that silver haired boy with glasses that they had attacked before the written exam. He also noticed sand team with the boy with red hair that had confronted his old teammates was here. He had a strange feeling that there was something different about this boy, something powerful. He shook off these thoughts as he looked up at the Sandaime Hokage, a man who he always considered like a grandfather. A small smile played at his lips upon seeing the old man, not that anyone notice under all of the bandages wrapped around his head.

'I really have missed the old man, him and Iruka-sensei. I hope that they weren't too sad over my departure. I really wish that I could go see them, but that is impossible now.'

After the speech was finished, they were told that they would have a preliminary round before the third exam to narrow the numbers down even further, and that anyone who wanted to quit could do so now. The boy known as Kabuto was the only one to drop out. The three sound genin went and sat with their sensei, waiting to see if one of them would be the next one to fight. They looked up at the large electronic board to see whose name would be chosen for the next fight.

Uchiha Sasuke V.S. Akadou Yoroi

The trio watched the fight, wondering how their former target was going to fare. Naruto was particularly interested as he watched Sasuke walk out, occasionally bringing a hand up to the area between his neck and shoulder. Naruto had wondered about that power that Sasuke had shown in the forest of death, it was something that he hadn't been capable of before he left, and the power just felt so dark and ominous. He figured that Sasuke's constant reaching up towards his neck might have something to do with it. When he got that power, he had been covered in marks, so he figure that the power might be a result of a seal of some sort, and based on his actions, it was probably located at his neck.

They watched as Sasuke initially struggled with his opponent. His opponent used a technique that managed to absorb his chakra. Sasuke was not fairing too well, and it seemed like he was holding back for some reason. He didn't seem to be fighting with everything that he could. His opponent seemed to only be able to use his technique at a close range, so it seemed like the smart thing to do would be fore Sasuke to attack from a distance with some of his long range jutsu. However, he was making no such move. Finally, Sasuke managed to catch a break and managed to deliver a hard kick to his opponent, sending him up into the air. Sasuke then followed behind him while Naruto watched with a sense of familiarity. It seemed that Sasuke had managed to copy the attack of that Lee kid, or at least, what he had seen of it. He watched as Sasuke then followed up with his own no version of the attack, calling it the Shishi Rendan. The combo had knocked Yoroi out and Sasuke was declared the winner as he was rushed of by Kakashi.

Everyone turned their attention back to the electronic board to see who the next contestants would be. It began to shuffle through the names again until it once again chose two more names.

Yamanaka Ino V.S. Hyuuga Neji

"Damn it" The complaints of a loud blonde girl carried over the arena as Ino let everyone know how she felt about having to go up against last years number one rookie. The white eyed Hyuuga just scoffed at having to fight such a weak opponent.

Ino was terrified. There was no way that she could beat this guy. The only jutsu she could use to win the match was the shintensin, and the odds of her actually hitting him with that were slim to none, and she couldn't trap him with her hair because she had already cut it off. To put it simply, she was screwed.

Shikamaru gave a sigh at his teammate's predicament as he decided to give his teammate some encouraging words.

"Don't die."

The fight was rather one sided and couldn't have lasted much more than 3 minutes. Neji had beaten Ino with little effort at all. No one was really surprised at the outcome, so they just turned to look up at the board again to see who would be in the next fight.

Temari V.S. TenTen

The fight was mildly interesting to watch, however the weapons girl, TenTen, didn't have a chance. It wasn't that she was bad, but that she was paired up against the one opponent who perfectly opposed her style. For every weapon thrown, a single wave of her fan would create a gust of wind that blow all of the weapons away. TenTen had fought well, but the match just wasn't in her favor and she eventually wound up defeated. Everyone turned to the board yet again to see who would be in the next match.

Akimichi Chouji V.S. Kankuro

At first it seemed like the large boy had the advantage as he used his multi-size techniques to attack Kankuro. Most people thought that the Chouji would easily win this match with the lack of significant action on behalf of the cloaked sand genin. They were all proven wrong when it turned out that the figure that Chouji had spent all of his time attacking was nothing more than a puppet. Through the use of trickery with his puppet, Kankuro had managed to wear down Chouji and drain his chakra as he repeatedly used multi-size jutsus to attack the puppet. Eventually, the puppet had managed to get behind Chouji and lock him in its grip. Soon after that, Chouji was forced to give up and Kankuro was declared the winner. Everyone turned to see who would be next.

Aburame Shino V.S. Tsurugu Misumi

A fairly uneventful fight. Misumi was constantly fooled by the use of Shino's bug clones and soon found herself drained of Chakra due to the Chakra leeching bugs of Shino's. everyone looked to see who would be fighting next.

Haruno Sakura V.S. Tsuchi Kin

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**A/N:** Ok, yeah, this chapter kind of sucks, but it is a simple filler chapter mostly. It was basically to get through all of the fairly unimportant fights and those that are not changed from the anime. I don't feel like retyping the fights from the anime since you should already know them, and the unimportant fights are just that, unimportant. The more important fights coming up I will spend more time on to make them good. So no complaining too much about this chapter.

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Today's rant…some short rants about different annoying fic types.

First off, we have the female Naruto fic, the spawn of the people who want to pair Naruto with a boy, but don't want to write a yaoi because they don't like yaoi. Therefore they decide that the whole issue can be avoided by making Naruto a girl. This _obviously _makes sense because he has his sexy-jutsu which makes a naked girl, so it is only logical that there be fics were they turn him into a girl. This logic is completely idiotic and turning him into a girl is completely useless, unnecessary and stupid. In addition, people can't think up a name for female Naruto, so about 3/4 of them call him Naruko. Come on people, try a bit more originality. If you really want to pair Naruto with a boy so badly, then go ahead and write a yaoi (not a support of flooding the site with even more yaoi.), but trying to avoid actually writing a yaoi by turning Naruto into a girl is just plain stupid.

Next, why the hell do we have so many idiotic 12-13 year old fangirls writing their crappy sleepover/truth or dare fics. For the love of all things holy I am sick of looking through the new stories and updates, only to find a bunch of stories about the kunoichi having a sleepover that the boys decide to crash, or the Naruto gang playing a game of truth or dare. And people wonder why I have so much against fangirls. If you are going to write a story, try to think up something with a plot and action, romance, or both, not a crappy sleepover story.

Next, we have the crack fics. I seriously wonder what the hell is wrong with half of these people as I read what their stories are about. Why in hell do we need stories about Sasuke being turned into a cat, or TenTen being a stripper or A crazy stalker following Itachi around, or making Itachi smile by having Sasori sing the peanut butter jelly time song (I really, really hate that song, I don't know why people think it is such a great video to watch). These fics are all incredibly stupid and I don't know why people keep writing them (all of these are actual summaries out there now.) but it really needs to stop.

And lastly, we have the excessive character bashing fics. Now don't get me wrong, I kind of like having mild character bashing (like what I do with Hinata), but when you base your whole fic around character bashing, then it just becomes stupid. I don't always like Sakura, but when I read a story out there where everyone tells her to shut up or that they hate her every time she speaks and hit her in the face constantly (or the one story where the author decided that he hated her so much that she should be paired with a cow), I think more about how much I now hate the author then how much I dislike Sakura. Mild character bashing with a reason, and that ties in with the plot is fine, but those stories are just completely idiotic.

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Well, that was a pretty long rant. Till next time, hopefully with a better chapter.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Sorry to all of my readers for the slower updates, but I am in college, so as finals approach, I have more that I need to do. Also, I have to make up about 10 weeks worth of Calculus homework that I didn't do the first time through. Anyways, it annoys me that I have to reiterate two points for about the fourth or fifth times because people just don't seem to get it, so here they are.

1. I have said it multiple times before and I will say it one last time. THIS IS NOT AN EVIL NARUTO FIC! Get it through your heads already those of you who keep asking that or labeling it as that. That means you person who put me on a C2 of Dark Naruto fics.

2. For all of you people who are still whining about how I should not condemn all fics of a genre because some of them can be good. I have said about 4-5 times now that any story type can be good as long as it has a good writer. However, most are bad, but when I rant, I say all because if I say most, then there is less impact. Also, all is a letter shorter then most (ok, I am not THAT lazy, but still.).

Any more people that write reviews like this are going to piss me off since I have mentioned these two points multiple times, so just drop it already. Now then, on with the chapter.

**Shadow Fox**

Sakura was a mixture of nervousness and gladness. She knew that this girl was strong, and that she had some sort of vendetta against her, so she was worried about her safety, as well as her place in the exams. However, at the same time, she was glad to be paired up against this girl as it give her a chance for revenge, not to mention that this girl held the answers to questions that she needed to have answered. As team seven had finished the last part of the exams, Sakura was able to recall the things that Kin had screamed at her and remembered that this girl might know something about Naruto. She did not tell Sasuke because she did not want to build his hopes up in case she was wrong; he was under enough stress thanks to that seal that the snake guy had put on him.

Meanwhile, across the stadium, Kin had a very devious looking smirk on her face, one that unnerved her teammates a bit. Fate was truly on her side, because not only did she get an easy pass into the next round, but she also gets to beat on the weak little bitch that hurt Naruto once again. Oh how she was going to enjoy this.

The two of them made their way down towards the ring where they both stood near the center, glaring at their opponent. It was then that Sakura spoke up.

"Listen, you know something that I want to know, so why don't we make a little bet. If I win this fight, then you tell me everything that you know about this person that you said I hurt."

Naruto flinched a bit from his spot up in the stands. He was really hoping that Sakura might have forgotten about that conversation, but apparently he had no such luck. He was fairly confident that Kin would win this battle, but he was still worried about what might happen in the slight chance that Kin loses.

Kin mentally slapped herself for having let her anger get the better of her earlier; this girl was just not going to give up about the matter. She only knew of one way to get the girl to drop it.

"Fine" Kin answered, "But if I win, then you have to drop this matter. Nom more questions about it."

"…Deal." Sakura agreed to the terms and the referee signaled for the match to start.

Sakura formed a hand seal and formed three regular bunshin. Each bunshin circled around Kin and launched an attack. Kin stood there, not moving an inch, as the first two bunshin passed harmlessly through her. She then suddenly grabbed her scythe and struck the real Sakura in the stomach with the handle of her scythe. Sakura jumped back as she held her stomach where the blow was dealt.

"How could you tell which one was the real me so easily?" Sakura inquired.

"Think about it, I am from the hidden sound village, bunshins are illusions and are not solid, thus they make no noise. It was obvious which one was you because you were the only one that made noise."

Sakura was a bit worried now; she only really had three techniques. Now the bunshin technique was useless, and she didn't think that henge would help her all that much, so she really didn't have much that she could do. She pulled out a kunai and dropped into a fighting stance. She knew that she was at a disadvantage fighting with a kunai while her opponent had a scythe, but she didn't have any offensive jutsu she could use, so this was the only choice she had.

Kin smirked as she raised her scythe above her head and started spinning it around while forming some hand seals. Sakura was at a complete loss as to what she was doing with her scythe. Kin suddenly brought the scythe downward and slammed the butt of her scythe into the ground. A small tremor surged through the ground and caught Sakura off guard, making it difficult for her to hold her ground and to focus. Kin capitalized on this opportunity as she charged forward and swung her scythe so that the handle of the scythe hit the back of Sakura's knee join, Lowering Sakura down to her knees. While Sakura was on her knees, Kin spun around with a round house kick, hitting Sakura in the side of the head and knocking her back a few feet.

Sakura struggled to her feet after the blow. She couldn't lose, she had to beat this girl so that she could find out what happened to Naruto so that she could find him and apologize to him. Then they could bring him back and they could be the original team seven once again. Sakura charged at Kin with a kunai in hand. Kin saw her coming and charged with her scythe. Once she was within range, she swung her scythe at the girl before Sakura got within range to use her kunai, this time using the blade so that she could end this match.

Naruto was getting a bit worried. He wanted Kin to win so that his secret would remain safe, but he didn't think that Kin would go this far. That attack with the blade of her scythe could kill Sakura.

Kin smirked as she felt her scythe imbed itself in the girl, only to have that smirk fade away as there was a puff of smoke and where Sakura once stood, there was a log. Yes, at the last possible moment before impact, Sakura had managed to use kawarimi to replace herself with one of the cut logs that the ninja seem to produce out of nowhere. Kin heard footsteps behind her and noticed that Sakura was running at her, preparing to strike. Kin began to spin around in circles and held out her scythe. Kin's scythe had its blade imbedded in the log that Sakura had replaced herself with, and when Sakura drew near, Kin released her scythe.

The scythe flew towards Sakura, who had not expected the scythe to be thrown. When she had seen Kin spinning, she had guessed that the girl planned to hit her when she got within range, so she kept charging forward. Now, it was too late to do anything as she saw the weapon approaching her. The log stuck on the blade hit Sakura in the head with a great deal of force, causing Sakura to stumble backwards as she began to lose consciousness.

'I am sorry lost Sasuke, Kakashi. Now I have lost my lead on Naruto…' and with that thought, Sakura fell unconscious.

"Winner, Tsuchi Kin." The referee announced.

Naruto gave a sigh of relief. Now his secret was safe, and Sakura was not killed by Kin. He congratulated his teammate as she returned to join her team in the stands. They all looked up to see who would be competing next.

Abumi Zaku V.S. Nara Shikamaru.

Zaku smirked as he walked down to the ring, while Shikamaru mumbled about this all being to troublesome as he mentioned the idea of just forfeiting the match. Verbally expressing that thought was not the best idea as an irate Ino, who had returned after having her minor injuries healed, was not happy about hearing her teammate mention giving up. If she had to go up against the Hyuuga prodigy, then he can manage going up against one of those sound ninja. After a great deal of shouting, and a comment from Shikamaru about Ino being a "nagging troublesome bitch," Shikamaru was thrown into the ring by a pissed of Ino.

The referee started the match, and Zaku wasted little time before he lifted his arms and shot a Zankuuha blast at Shikamaru. He laughed as he saw Shikamaru on the run.

"Just give up already, you don't stand a chance. I already saw your special jutsu in the Forest of Death. You surprised me then, but you won't do that again. I am used to training with a shadow user who is far more skilled then you, all that I have to do is stay away from the shadows and you'll never be able to trap me."

This caught the attention of a few people in the audience, particularly Nara Shikaku and the Sandaime Hokage. They both thought that the Nara clan was the only clan that could manipulate the shadows. Who was this boy that could also manipulate the shadows?

Shikamaru was running as he continuously had to dodge Zankuuha blasts. He muttered a few choice curses under his breath as he continued dodging. The Kagemane was his trump card, and he didn't know many other techniques. His opponent knew that if he stayed away from shadows, then he couldn't connect their shadows. He needed time to think of a strategy, he needed some cover. That was when he saw the statue in the arena. He ran over and took cover behind the stone statue as he brought his hand up to his chin and began to think of what he could do to force this guy into a shadow so that he could catch him with his Kagemane.

Zaku was worried that if he tried to go around the statue to get to his opponent, he might end up walking into a trap, so he decided that he would just try to blast his way through the statue. Either he would destroy it, or he would knock it over, taking away his opponents hiding spot and possibly catching him underneath. He started to launch blast after blast of Zankuuhas at the statue.

Shikamaru knew that the Statue wouldn't hold forever, and that he had to think of something quick. He surveyed his surroundings and noticed that some pieces of the statue were becoming loose. That was when an idea came to him. If that piece hanging there was hit just right…It was a long shot, but it was his only chance. If he had guessed the angles right, then this just might work.

Shikamaru then ran out from behind the statue as more Zankuuha blasts were thrown at him. He continued to dodge until he came back to the front of the statue and positioned himself for his plan to commence. Zaku took the bait and fired yet another Zankuuha blast at him. Shikamaru dodged the blast and watched as the piece of the stone statue was blasted up in the air, heading upwards and in the direction of Zaku. Zaku prepared to move out of the path of the incoming piece of the statue when suddenly he found that he couldn't move.

"What the hell!" Zaku yelled.

"When the statue piece went up in the air, it managed to momentarily block part of the sun from us, creating much more shadowed area on the arena floor. This is where it ends."

Shikamaru leaned forward a little bit, causing Zaku to move likewise, where the statue piece came down and hit him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

"Winner, Nara Shikamaru."

Naruto watched as the medic nin came out to check on his friend. He gave a small sigh at what had happened to his friend.

'He got overconfident and brash again. This wouldn't have happened if he hadn't made an all out attack on that statue.'

Naruto glanced up at the score board again. There were now fewer contestants left, and a good chance that his match will be called now.

Hyuuga Hinata V.S. Hokaido Hokuro

'Interesting' thought Naruto 'Now I get to see what my replacement is really capable of.'

He watched as the shy Hyuuga girl made her way down to the ring, but no one was sure of where Hokuro was. Then suddenly, there was a large burst of smoke in the center of the ring. As the smoke cleared, a figure could be seen in the center. The figure just happened to be Hokuro, his legs spread out in a fighting stance with one arm forward, beckoning her to make a move while the other arm was held up slightly behind his head, his arm curved and pointing towards her, making the whole pose rather ridiculous looking.

"There is no chance of escape from this battle, surrender now or be forced to do battle with the mysterious black beast of Konoha!"

Most of the people in the stands could be seen with a sweat drop forming on the back of their heads, some could even be seen face faulting. Two others were having a rather different reaction.

"YOSH! Gai-sensei, the flames of youth burn brightly in this ninja, he is full of youthful passion!"

"Yes my dear student Lee, his flames of youth are most impressive, the flames of youth burn almost as brightly in him as they do us!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Kakashi could be seen in the stands with his hand against his forehead, shaking his head from left to right.

'I thought that they gave me a normal student, but instead he turns out to be a Gai-wannabe. Just what I need, a student with the "Flames of Youth."'

"Umm…Ano, but this is a tournament battle in an arena, there was never an option f running away to begin with." The timid voice of Hyuuga Hinata rang out through the silence of the arena.

"Nooooo, my fear inducing pose did not work." Hokuro cried, obviously deflating that his strategy to scare his opponent had failed,"What did I do wrong? When that other guy did it, my teammates couldn't react they were so afraid. Do I have to have those bushy eyebrows for it to work right?" He had missed that fact that his teammates were not frozen out of fear, but that they frozen in shock at the strange man.

"NO!" The voice of Kakashi rang out through the arena, "That won't be necessary."

Hokuro turned his attention back towards Hinata and the referee started the match. Hinata activated her Byakugan and charged forward, trying to land Jyuken strikes by lightly tapping his tenketsu, hoping not to hurt him too badly. Hokuro was dodging her blows, wondering why she was not putting any force behind those strikes of hers.

"THAT'S IT!" Hokuro yelled, surprising Hinata so that she jumped back, away from Hokuro.

"Umm…What is it?" Hinata asked.

"Ha, I have figure out your plan, you are not going to fool me!"

"You have?" Hinata asked, slightly deflating that her opponent had figured out what she was doing.

"You can't fool me, you were trying to fake me out with those weak strikes so that I would move behind you, and then you planned to attack me with your hair spike!"

The audience face faulted at the oblivious genin. Many in the stands understood what the goal of the Jyuken fighting style was, and couldn't help but face fault over the completely wrong assessment of this genin.

Kiba was rolling on the ground, holding his sides in laughter over the thought of Hinata attacking him with the back of her hair. He continued to laugh until he was hit by his teacher Kurenai, who noticed Hinata's embarrassment in the middle of the arena at hearing someone laugh at her hair.

"Umm, that's not what I am doing." Hinata said with her head hung down.

"Don't try to fool me, why else would you have your hair spike in the back, unless for some hair-spike jutsu."

The people in the audience were beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with this genin. His assessment of situations really needed work.

Hinata got over this whole situation and charge once more, continuing with her gentle version of the gentle fist. Hokuro, still thinking that this was her trying to fool him with weak blows decided to take the attacks in the hopes of making an opening. He didn't want to get hit by that hair spike. After delivering some of the gentle blows which Hokuro made no attempt to dodge, Hinata jumped back and spoke.

"I have sealed some of your tenketsu, it will be very difficult for you to use chakra now, please give up."

Hokuro made some hand seals to test if this was true, and sure enough, he was having great difficulty using his chakra, making jutsu almost impossible. Hokuro then quickly ran right in front of Hinata, startling the Hyuuga heiress. He then pulled his head back and delivered a vicious headbutt to her head. Both of them stumbled back a bit before they both fell to the ground unconscious.

The referee sweat dropped as he spoke "Ummm…this fight is a draw."

Everyone just kind of stared after having witnessed such a strange fight, unsure what to really think. They looked up to see who would be involved in the next match.

Dosu Kinuta V.S. Inuzuka Kiba.

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**A/N:** that's it for now; I want to hold off a bit on Naruto's fight so I can figure out some scenes for a good fight. I had some ideas for these fights, but it was a bit difficult coming up with some things. Sakura's fighting was a pain because…well…she only knows three moves. However, for a while I have wanted to have the Hokuro/Hinata fight. Please review now so that I can become the highest reviewed Naru/Kin story on the site, only about 85 away, so a few more chapters should do it. Anyway, on to some reviews.

To the unregistered reviewer **Dragonmaster**, Yes, I am not very descriptive, it is just the way I am. I just really don't care to describe his clothes. I am a male nerd, fashion is not my thing. Really, all that was needed to know was that he wears black to blend with the shadows, and he has a mask, it is as simple as that.

To the unregistered reviewer **hewhowatches**…WHAT THE HELL KIND OF MORON ARE YOU! My profile is not a lie, I really am a male. The added limb between my legs assures me of that. I don't know why you are so convinced that I am this girl you know and that my whole profile must obviously be a lie to cover that fact up, but I am not the girl you know. Go ahead and ask her yourself if she is the one who wrote this, or if I am her. Go ahead and make an idiot out of yourself…moron.

I don't have any other reviews that I feel like commenting on right now.

There is no rant this chapter because I just don't feel like writing one right now. I am running low on topics I choose to rant about, and my rants are getting a bit whiney, so there is only going to be one more rant, and it will be a mock story about overpowered Naruto fics. I don't really have anything against them since a lot of times that is what I read, but I have a few things to put in the mock story.

Anyways, until next time.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Ack, I only have 4 more uses of Microsoft Word until I actually have to buy it. Oh well, anyway, sorry for the wait, but procrastination in college means crappy last weeks.

Man, people really seem to like Hokuro. I was going to just let him fade out of the story, but now I may have to implement him in other places (Sasuke retrieval mission anyone?).

On a side note, while I was reading through my reviews, I realized something. Typically, any people who decide to flame me are little pansy ass cowards writing unsigned reviews that I can't reply to, to which I laugh at the cowardice of it all and how pathetic it is. Oh well, just thought that I would let that out. Anyway, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto calmly walked down towards the arena, Kyo at his side. He figured he could use Kyo for assistance, but he wanted to try to hide his shadow abilities so that he could hold an element of surprise, so he had Kyo walk with him instead of traveling through the shadows. He could hear Kiba boasting to the other leaf ninja about how he was going to beat this bandaged head guy in no time.

"This guy doesn't look so tough; Akamaru and I will beat him in no time at all."

"I would be a bit more cautious if I were you, He is a lot tougher than he looks." The lazy drawl of Shikamaru's voice could be heard issuing his warning.

"Yeah right, there is no way I am going to lose to some freak with his head covered in bandages."

Kiba grabbed Akamaru and jumped down into the arena. He looked over to see his opponent walking into the ring accompanied by a pitch black fox.

"So, you use an animal too? Interesting, but it won't help you any. There is no way that Akamaru would lose to some fox, and there is no way I will lose to you." Kiba boasted. He looked to Akamaru only to find Akamaru sniffing at the air and barking at him. "What's that, you say his scent seems familiar Akamaru?" Kiba then sniffed the air himself, "Your right, his scent does seem familiar, but I can't really place it. Let's forget about that for now and focus on the fight."

The referee signaled for the match to begin, and Naruto turned so that his right side faced Kiba. This was the opening stance for his style. Naruto turns so that his side faces their opponent. This creates more positions to dodge and roll around attacks and create counters. It also gives his opponent a false sense of security as it looks as though he has not defense in his stance, causing his opponent to attack more sloppily since they think he is inexperienced in taijutsu. However, he now needed to wait for Kiba to attack. His shadow taijutsu style only countered enemy attacks, it didn't initiate attacks. If he had to attack his opponent, it was fairly sloppy and not very efficient. Luckily, from what he remembered of Kiba in the academy, he was fairly hot headed, so he would probably try to constantly attack him.

"What's the matter bandage-head, too scared to attack me? You don't stand a chance; just give up now and save yourself from a world of hurt." Kiba taunted.

Naruto scoffed at him, he was really tempted to try using the thousand years of pain technique with a shadow spike right now, but that might cause some suspicion as to his identity, "Don't flatter yourself, you're not worth the effort." He hopped that would rile him up into attacking. Fortunately, his taunt worked as Kiba began to shake with anger.

"So I am not worthy of your effort huh? I'll make you regret those words."

Kiba got down on all four limbs and launched himself at Naruto. He launched a punch with his left fist, only to have Naruto spin around to his left. The punch passed right behind Naruto's back, and Naruto continued to turn as he lifted his leg in the air. Before Kiba knew what was going on, Naruto's right leg came over his head and wrapped around his neck. Naruto pulled his leg back, pulling Kiba down to the ground, and as Kiba's body approached the ground, Naruto stuck out his left knee, driving Kiba's back into his knee.

Kiba grunted in pain as his back was forced into Naruto's knee. Akamaru tried to assist his master and jumped to attack Naruto, only to be tackled to the side in mid air by Kyo. Kiba rolled to the side and jumped back to create some distance as he called for Akamaru to return to his side.

"Damn it, the bastard caught me off guard, I'll make him pay for that."

Once again, Kiba charged in for a frontal assault. He launched a punch with his right hand but this was simply dodged by Naruto. He then followed up with a kick with his right foot, but as his foot was about to connect, Naruto grabbed his leg. He then spun to his left and gave him two elbows in the face with his left arm, while his right Arm continued to hold Kiba's leg. He followed this up by continuing to spin to the left as he brought his right leg up towards Kiba's head. Kiba ducked under the kick but Naruto's leg continued its path until it stretched out over the kneecap of the leg that he held, and then proceeded to drop his weight to the ground, the force of his drop combined with the weight of his leg as it smashed into Kiba's kneecap.

Kiba was getting really pissed now. Every time he launched an attack, he was simply countered and those counters really hurt. He couldn't even get Akamaru to help him because every time he tried, he was attacked by the black fox.

'Damn it, I am not going to lose to this guy, but he keeps countering every time I attack. Well, I've still got a few tricks left. Let's see him counter these.'

Meanwhile, up in the stands, the only two people that wore green spandex suits were having a conversation about this boy's fighting style.

"Gai-sensei, what is the style that boy uses. I fought against him in the second stage of the exam but I could not recognize his style."

"For once my student, I do not know about a fighting style. I have never seen this style of fighting before, but it seems to revolve around narrowly dodging attacks and countering, particularly counters that use gravity to its advantage."

"I see…WHAT AN INCREIBLY YOUTHFUL FIGHTING STYLE!"

"INDEED IT IS LEE!"

Those who were standing in the vicinity of Gai and Lee slowly moved away from the two as they began to make quite a scene with their yelling and hugging and crying whatnot else.

Meanwhile, back in the arena, Naruto just got back up into his stance while Kiba began to settle into his again, only this time, instead of charging again, he merely smirked at his opponent.

"You haven't done too bad so far, but let's see you counter this." Kiba started moving towards him when he suddenly began to spin. "Tsuuga!"

Normally, Kiba would have saved this attack for use with Akamaru, but he was getting impatient, and Akamaru was busy fighting with the black fox at them moment. As he neared Naruto, Naruto began to get worried about the attack.

'Shit, I thought I would probably be able to counter his attacks, but I can't think of anything for this attack and it is too late to dodge…this is going to hurt.'

Up in the stands, Kin was gripping the guard rail tightly as she watched Naruto get knocked back a great deal, his body covered in scratches and gashes.

"That's it, it's over. Call the match ref; he's not getting up any time soon." Kiba boasted.

The referee shook his head and pointed towards Naruto. Kiba's gaze followed to where the referee was pointing and he saw his opponent getting back up to his feet. Although he was a bit wobbly on his feet, Naruto was still able to fight in this battle. As he swayed a bit on his feet, the wind caught a hold of his ripped and torn bandages and the bandages fell off from around his face. The bandages fell to the floor in dramatic slow motion as the wind blew through his hair for even more dramatic effect.

Up in the stands, TenTen could have sworn that out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Neji tossing his head to the side and letting his hair flap in the wind as he muttered "I have such a better slow motion dramatic pose then this guy." But she couldn't have seen that, there was no way that Neji would have done something like that, right?

All eyes in the audience were now focused on this boy with black hair, piercing blue eyes and mask that hid about half of his face. Many a gleeful squeal could be heard from the girls in the arena over the looks of this mysterious boy.

'I have missed seeing him without those bandages; it's such a crime to make him cover his face like that.' Kin thought to herself as she gazed at her teammate.

Naruto was now really glad that he was wearing his mask underneath his bandages. There were very few people who would probably recognize him with his hair dyed and mask on. Sasuke had been taken away after his match by Kakashi to deal with something that had happened to Sasuke. The only people who would possibly recognize him were Sakura, Iruka and the Sandaime. Sakura probably would not recognize him so he crossed her off his mental list, and he hadn't seen Iruka in the stadium since they arrived, so he thought that he might be busy with some other duties. The only person that he was somewhat worried about was the Sandaime, so he tried to keep himself facing away from where the Kages were seated.

Kiba meanwhile was not happy that so many girls were quite taken with this newcomer. It was almost like dealing with another Sasuke, only this guy didn't seem to be the brooding type that Sasuke was.

'How come none of the girls ever come for me, I am a perfect specimen of a man, the girls should be flocking to me. I'll just have to impress the girls by beating this new guy so bad that he will wish that he had never been born.'

Kiba then pulled out a round pill and threw it to Akamaru. Akamaru got a power boost and then moved behind Kiba as Kiba began to form hand seals. Akamaru then transformed into another Kiba, and the two of them stood side by side ready to attack.

"You want to try something like that Kyo?" Naruto asked his fox, who yipped at him in response. Kyo then ran to Naruto and began to climb around on Naruto's body, rubbing against him as he went. He then jumped down beside Naruto and began to subtly let the shadows pool around him so that it would be less noticeable. The shadows then merged on him so that he basically became a second Naruto, with a structure similar to a kage bunshin. This use of the shadows went unnoticed by most, except for one old man with a sharp eye.

'That is no ordinary fox that boy is using, that is a shadow fox, but how come it is with that boy? The clan that had an agreement with the shadow fox clan was wiped out, so how did this boy get their help, there are only a few people who could possibly even know about them. The only way I can think of for someone his age to know about them is if Naruto had gotten in contact with…' Sandaime's thoughts were interrupted as he caught a glimpse of the boy's face in a moment of carelessness. It was hard to tell with that mask covering his face and the different hair color, but those eyes were the exact same, even from this distance he could tell that there was only one person he knew with eyes like that. 'Can it really be him, is it really you Naruto?'

Kiba was now furious over having this boy practically copy his technique. He was planning on having a two on one advantage during most of his fights, but now, not only did this boy have a fox to help him and counter act his advantage with Akamaru, but now he was also able to have his fox transform into a replica of him, basically nullifying one of his own trump cards.

'Alright, calm down Kiba, you can still kick his ass, just figure out which one is the real one by his scent and attack him to end this fight quickly.'

Kiba started sniffing the air, trying to pick up which of them had the scent the scent of a human and which had the scent of a fox. He began to worry when he found that the two of them both had very similar scents. Then he remembered the fox rubbing up against Naruto all over his body, they must have been rubbing their scent on to each other, mixing their scents and making them similar. He was beginning to get worried, so he just launched into an attack, hoping that he could end the match now.

"Gatsuuga" he yelled as both he and Akamaru became a spinning tornado of claws. The two of them both converged, striking in an x-pattern on one of the Narutos.

'Shit, that hurt, I need to come up with a counter for that move, I can't take many more of them and I really want to hold off revealing my shadow moves for as long as possible.' Naruto thought. They had just so happened to hit the real Naruto.

Kiba begin to get his confidence back as his attack hit Naruto. The boy was looking pretty battered and wouldn't last much longer against this kind of assault.

"You aren't going to last much longer, and it seems that you can't find a way to counter my move. That's because my moves are perfect, you don't stand a chance. Just give up now while you still can."

Kiba's proclamation was only met with laughter on the part of Naruto. Kiba was getting angry at his opponent again. What was he laughing about, he was losing.

"What's so funny loser."

"You are so arrogant that it is amusing. That move of yours is far from perfect, and you rely on it too much. Keep relying on one move and people are going to find ways to counter it, you really should try a little variety in your choice of moves."

"Just keep talking loser, that move is all that I need to take out the likes of you, and you still haven't managed to counter it yet. This time it will finish you off. Gatsuuga!"

Kiba and Akamaru spun towards Naruto once again, only just before they hit him, Naruto vanished. When Kiba and Akamaru came to a stop, they looked around to see where there opponent had gone. He was right in the line of fire of their attack, but at the last second he disappeared. They soon located both Narutos at the other end of the arena, looking back at them with a look of smug satisfaction.

"It looks like I am just to fast to be hit by your attack. I suggest that you not try that move again, or I guarantee you that you will lose."

"Arghh, shut up already, Gatsuuga!"

This time however, Kiba grabbed Akamaru's hand and the size of their whirlwind of claws doubled. Naruto merely smirked as both he and Kyo positioned themselves in their shadow style stance at the edge of their attack. Just before the attack connected, both Naruto and Kyo spun around so that the attack just missed them. Naruto was on the left whirlwind, his back facing towards Kiba's attack, while Kyo was on the right side with his front facing Kiba's attack. Simultaneously, both Naruto and Kyo did a back flip. Kyo's leg came up to connect with Akamaru as he spun downwards from the whirling attack, while Naruto flipped completely over and his leg came down and connected with Kiba as he was going up from the whirling motion.

The attack caused quite a bit of pain in the legs of Naruto and Kyo, as their opponents were spinning rather quickly so there was a lot of force opposing their legs. However, the damage was much worse to both Kiba and Akamaru. The two of them both stumbled around a bit after ending their attack before they both fell unconscious.

"Winner, Dosu Kinuta."

Kin cheered for the victory of her teammate while some of the leaf ninja applauded out of courtesy, or in the case of the girls, to cheer for hot guy. The last match of the preliminaries was between Rock Lee and Gaara. It was a fairly interesting fight with Lee never giving up, but in the end, it was Gaara who won, leaving Lee injured badly.

All of the participants who had won their matches made their way to the ring for the announcement that the third stage of the exams would continue a month from now, giving them time to train in preparation for their next opponent. The then drew a number to determine who their next opponents would be. The match ups were determined as follows.

Sasuke V.S. Gaara

Kin V.S. Temari

Naruto V.S. Shikamaru

Shino V.S. Kankuro

Winner of that match V.S. Neji

'Damn it, all of that work to not show my shadow powers so I could surprise my opponent, and I get an opponent who already saw my shadow abilities.' Naruto fumed in his head, he could have come out of his fight with considerably less injuries had he just used his shadow skills.

They were all dismissed so that they could rest and began training for the next stage of the exam. After dismissing them, the Sandaime walked back to the Hokage tower, his mind filled with many thoughts, most involving a mysterious boy that seemed so very much to be Naruto. He would have to look into this matter a little bit more during this month.

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**A/N:** Yeah, I really am sorry about the delay, and even after that wait, I don't think that the fight is all that great. Sorry, I try to make them good, but writing fight scenes really isn't my strong suit. I can visualize some things, but I don't always describe them well. Also, I haven't seen Kiba fight. I read some online manga issues of this fight, but fighting styles are a bit hard to pick up on from still shots. Anyways, my mind is caught up in later plot points, so I am trying to do well on these, but my mind is on future plot points.

One thing that I need someone to tell me about is that if anyone knows, can you tell me about how the sacrifice for the Edo Tensei or whatever it's called works? Does Orochimaru have to physically kill people for the sacrifice, or is their spirit taken by performing hand seals or what? And don't think that you know what is going to happen based on this question, I like plot twists.

Next order of business, I have decided to advertise a story. Many of you have already read it and it is a story that I personally love, but for some reason, it doesn't have as many reviews as I think it should have. Granted, reviews don't equate to popularity, but still, I am going to advertise it. The story is called "From Ramen with Love." And it is probably the funniest story that I have read. I will mention that it is M rated as a disclaimer, but it does not have lemons in it, it is just very suggestive and lime heavy. Anyway, I suggest that if you haven't read it that you go read it right now.

I am going to hold off on the super powered Naruto mock story again because it is late. It will be the last rant, so don't bother suggesting other topics anymore. It is not just that I am running low on topics, but also that I am just getting somewhat tired of ranting for now, so the super powered Naruto mock story will be the last one, though I may have it span multiple chapters.

Till next time.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **Well, I suppose that I really should apologize for the wait. I could make excuses about mild writers block for this chapter, or say that the excess load of crappy stories being posted disturbed me so much that I couldn't bring myself to write, but the fact of the matter is that I am just lazy. Once I got home after finishing exams, I started working on some of the 10 or so RPG's that I have left unfinished, so I just put off story writing and for that, I am sorry.

On a second note, I can now boast that I have the highest reviewed Naru/Kin story on this site. Sure, I know that "highest reviewed" and "most popular" are different things, and that there is not much competition, but for the first story that I have ever written, having the most reviews for this pairing makes me happy, so thank you all for your reviews. Anyways, time to move on to the story.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto and Kin were walking to the hospital to pick up their teammate who had recovered from unconsciousness. The three of them continued to their hotel room with Kin happily chatting about how they were going to do in the final part of the exam. Naruto smiled at her antics while Zaku scowled at her, angry that he had been eliminated from the exam, by that lazy ninja no less. Naruto noticed the scowl on his friends face and spoke up.

"I know that you are angry about losing Zaku, but you really have no one to blame but yourself. You underestimated your opponent and got a bit carried away in your attacking again. What have I told you about your temper?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that I got a bit excessive on the attack, but I still don't have to be happy about losing." Zaku knew that his friend was trying to give him advice for the future, but right now, he was just too pissed to care at the moment.

As they walked along, Kin remembered something about Naruto's match, something that she meant to ask him about.

"Hey, Dosu, I meant to ask you, during your match with that dog guy, you moved really fast at the end. When did you get so fast? I have never seen you doing any sort of speed training."

Naruto smiled as he turned to his teammate to answer her question, "I have been doing speed training, just not anything that you could see."

"Weights?" Zaku questioned.

"Nope, I don't use weights; I just make my shadow resist my movements. The added strain on my muscles at all time helped to increase my speed. However, I haven't got a taijutsu style to incorporate my speed into yet."

The trio soon found themselves back at their hotel room. It was then that Zaku finally noticed something.

"Hey, Naruto, what happened to your bandages?" Zaku asked, free to use Naruto's name in the safety of their hotel room.

"They got torn up in my battle in the exam. I should get started replacing them soon."

"Umm, can you stay like this a little while longer? I like it better when you have the bandages off." Kin asked with a slight blush tinting her cheeks.

"Aww, that's so sweet, Kin wants to ogle you like some fan girl." Zaku replied with a smirk.

"What the hell are you saying Zaku." Kin yelled "It just confuses me to know that it is Naruto but to see him looking like Dosu, so how about you just shut up and let us discuss our training for the next month, since we actually made it to the finals."

"Oh hell no, you did not just say that. Now you are in for it, I am going to kill you."

Naruto watched as his two friends begin rolling around the room, launching insignificant attacks at each other. He soon found himself laughing at his friend's antics. He was happy with his new team, and nothing would change that. Both Zaku and Kin soon managed to settle down, and the three began to discuss how they would train in the coming month so that Naruto and Kin would be ready for the final portion of the exam.

Zaku later left, saying that he was going to go find someplace to eat. This left Naruto and Kin alone in the hotel room.

"Naruto, I was wondering if I could ask you something?"

"What is it Kin-chan?"

"I was wondering if I could see what you look like without your mask on."

Naruto was unsure of what to do with this request. His mask hid one of only three traits that tied him to his old life. His eyes, his whisker marks and his seal were the only things that he could not change. His whisker marks…the sign of what he was, a demon vessel. A reminder of the hatred he was subjected to his whole life, for when people saw those whisker marks, they knew who he was, and thus hated him. Kin knew nothing of the Kyuubi inside of him, what would she think if she saw the whisker marks on his face? He sighed to himself as he considered this predicament. He was afraid of the possibility of her questioning him, of her eventually figuring out what he was, but at the same time, he didn't want to spend his whole life hiding behind a mask, afraid of what people might think should he ever remove it. He gave another internal sigh as he slowly lowered his mask, revealing his face to his teammate.

Kin watched as her teammate lowered his mask. His face was not flawed or anything of that sort, so he wasn't hiding some disfiguration behind his mask. His face had an appearance that seemed paradoxical. It had a certain boyish charm to it, yet at the same time it held a sort of maturity to it, one that came from having gone through a number of painful ordeals. Then she noticed the whisker like marks on his cheek. Having marks like that was not a normal occurrence, so what were they there for? She wanted to know the answer to this question, but felt that this was probably what he was trying to hide with his mask, so she didn't want to pry.

"Naruto."

Naruto locked on to her gaze, he was scared of what her reaction might be, scared of losing her, but he held his ground to hear her out, "Yes Kin-chan."

"Thank you for trusting me enough to show me your face, but I have one thing to ask of you."

Naruto flinched at her words; she was going to ask about his whisker marks, she was going to be suspicious of him. He had finally been happy, but now it was all going to be taken away from him. He braced himself for the coming question.

"Please don't feel that you have to hide anything from us, Zaku and I are your friends, we wont push you to tell us anything that you don't want to, but please don't feel that you need to hide things from us for fear that we will stop being your friends."

Naruto was shocked, he had expected a mini inquisition, but she was just asking him to not feel the need to hide things from them, she wasn't going to press him for answers to her questions about his whisker marks. He couldn't hold back the happiness that overcame him as he suddenly hugged Kin, not noticing the blush that stained her cheeks.

"Thank you Kin-chan, I really needed to hear that."

Kin slowly recovered from her shock and returned the hug. She felt so warm in his arms; she felt happy in his arms and didn't want the moment to end. When he broke the hug, she suddenly felt cold, she wanted to jump back into his arms and stay there forever. She was brought out of her thoughts by Naruto, who was blushing over his sudden reaction.

"So, why don't we go find somewhere to get dinner, I am getting pretty hungry."

Kin simply nodded, not quite able to bring herself to speak yet.

"Ok, then after I wrap some more bandages around my head, lets go get some ramen." Naruto said as he pulled up his mask

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Unbeknownst to either of the two teenagers, a certain old man was watching the exchange through a crystal ball in his office. After watching the preliminary matches of the exam, he decided that he needed to keep an eye on this boy to see if his suspicions were correct. He didn't expect to have his suspicions confirmed so quickly. This boy was indeed Naruto, they had called him by name and he had seen his face. The whisker marks confirmed it. He wasn't sure what to feel at the moment, he was overjoyed to see that Naruto was alright, but at the same time, he was saddened by the fact that he had joined another village, especially one that he held his suspicions about. He had been informed about the sighting of Orochimaru during the exam and he had seen the curse seal on Sasuke, and while he had no proof, he had a feeling that the sound village was tied to Orochimaru in some way.

"Naruto, of all of the villages that you could have joined, why did it have to be that one?"

He knew the probable answer to that question. Naruto believed that he would be declared a missing nin, so he needed to find somewhere to go, some place where he would be safe from hunter nin. He had heard of a new village where missing nin were being accepted, and if this village was tied to Orochimaru as he believed, then it was highly likely that this was that village. But if they were housing Naruto, then what were they planning that they would risk sending Naruto back to Konoha, they could easily have waited until the exams were held somewhere else, so why risk him being discovered. Something was amiss here, and Sarutobi was going to find out what that was, but first, he had to contact a certain student of his rumored to be in town.

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Shikamaru sighed to himself as he thought about what he was about to do. He didn't really care very much about the exams at the beginning, but now, things were a bit different. There was something about this Dosu guy that he didn't understand, something that he felt that he needed to know. Also, despite what some people may have believed, he did have a bit of pride, and pride in his family's abilities. He didn't want to lose to another shadow user; it would make his family abilities look bad. And so it was that Shikamaru did something he never thought that he would find himself doing.

"Dad, can you train me this month for the chuunin exam finals."

Shikaku stared at his son and blinked, then blinked again, and then he collapsed, having passed out from surprise.

"Damn it, I'm not _that_ lazy. This is all too troublesome."

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Naruto let out a sigh of contentment as he relaxed in the warm water of the hot spring. He and Kin had decided to go to the hot springs after eating dinner, and the hot water felt great on the sore muscles he had after fighting Kiba. He was still a bit pissed that he had ultimately taken that beating for nothing, hiding his abilities only to face an opponent that had already seen them. He began to slowly sink into the water, starting to slowly tune out the world around him. This could not but done however, thanks to the constant perverted chuckling coming from the vicinity. He looked around for Kakashi or possibly Ebisu, but only found an older man with white hair staring through a hole in the fence. Naruto began to make his way towards the old man, who soon found a spike made of shadows behind him in a very uncomfortable position, threatening to invade some very personal space.

"Normally, I really wouldn't care what you are doing, but Kin-chan is over on the other side right now, so if you don't get away from that hole, you are going to end up with this shadow spike in a very uncomfortable place."

The old man thought about this for a few moments. He didn't want the result that this kid was promising, but the viewing was just so good. However, the consequence seemed worse then the prize, so he reluctantly backed away, figuring he could just return for some more research later. He turned around to see the person who interrupted his research and was met with a single vibrant blue eye, one that he had only seen on one individual before. He decided to introduce himself, so he began to break into his personal dance.

"I am a man known by many, the object of every woman's affection, the envy of men everywhere, the incredibly powerful, the one and only frog sannin, Jiraiya."

His introduction only met with the back of a retreating Naruto. He decided that he was done with his bath, and he didn't really care to deal with this perverted old man. He sent Kyo over to the female bath to inform Kin that he was leaving, and that there was a perverted old man peeking into the women's bath. Needless to say, Jiraiya received a severe beating at the hands of many enraged women. It was at this time that a messenger from Sarutobi arrived for Jiraiya. He went to go meet with his old sensei, thoughts of this new boy filling his mind, he would have to try to find out more about this kid.

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Back in the sound village, the real Dosu was repeatedly punching a training log, still frustrated that Naruto, who only showed up about two months ago, was given his spot in the chuunin exam. He was just as good as Naruto, so why should he have to stay in the sound village while the others get the chance to be promoted to chuunin. Why couldn't Naruto have replaced one of the others? Surely they could have found some way to disguise him as one of the others. It was too late to hope for any of these now. The exams had already started, and he had been left behind.

"Damn it, why did I have to be left behind."

He jerked around when he felt a hand on his shoulder, only to find himself facing the Otokage himself.

"Orochimaru-sama, what are you doing here?"

"I am just making some final preparations for something." Orochimaru replied. He looked over towards the log that Dosu had been attacking, which now had some very large dents in it. "I suppose that you are still upset about getting left behind for the exams."

"…Yes. I am sorry Orochimaru-sama, I know that this was your decision, and that you must have some reason, but I know that I could have passed the exam if only I hadn't been left behind."

"Dosu, I am going to let you in on something that not even your teammates know. The reason that we entered the chuunin exams is as a front for our real plan. Our real plan is to attack the village of Konoha."

Dosu was shocked at this revelation. They were going to attack Konoha? This was some big news.

"Now, I know that you didn't get to enter the exams, but I have a proposition for you, a role for you to play that, if you succeed, I will have you promoted to chuunin."

"Of course I will do it Orochimaru-sama; I will do whatever you ask of me."

"You are going to accompany me while I attack the Hokage."

"Are you sure that I am ready for a role like that, I am not sure that I would be much help against the Hokage."

"You do not need to fight the Hokage; you are there to make sure that no one else interferes in our fight."

"Alright then Orochimaru-sama, I will accompany you and make sure that no one interferes with your fight. I will start to prepare right away."

Orochimaru chuckled as he watched Dosu run off to prepare for his "role" in the attack, he had no intention of having Dosu protect him, he had better ninjas if he wanted someone for that role. No, the plan was to have Dosu there in case he needed a sacrifice. He couldn't help but picture the face of Sarutobi as he saw the past Hokages rising from the ground to attack him.

"ahahahahaack…Damn evil cackling irritating my throat." Orochimaru said as he entered into a coughing fit courtesy of his evil cackling.

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**A/N:** Again I am very sorry about the wait for this chapter. I can't guarantee how long it will be until the next chapter, but I will try to make it a shorter wait then this chapter. All that waiting and all that I can really give is a filler chapter, but oh the plot twists for the future. Anyways, sorry again, and now on to the mock story that I have been putting off for awhile.

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This will be the mock overpowered Naruto story. I really don't have anything against these stories as they are mostly what I end up reading. However, so many aspects are overdone, that I must now insult them, because it is what I do. I know a lot of you have probably written stories like this, so no whining once I am finished, just accept it as a small joke and move on. So anyways, on to the story.

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Little 6 year old Naruto was walking along the street. Despite the hatred directed at him, he still remains upbeat and cheerful. He is happily making his way down the street when he accidentally runs into a drunk man, because the person he runs into must always be drunk.

"I am so very sorry; I didn't mean to run into you."

"Hey, look, it's the demon brat, let's kill him, because I am drunk and can conveniently forget the law that is enforced with the death penalty."

And so the man proceeds to beat up poor little Naruto while the villagers gather around to throw in their comments, because they seem to forget that making the crowd larger is just going to bring more attention to it and then there would be hell to pay from an angry hokage, but he will never _really _kill people for breaking the law, he is just too nice for that.

"Die demon-brat."

"You killed my family."

"Generic demon comment."

Oh poor Naruto, life is so cruel. But wait, Naruto's luck is about to change, someone jumps in to stop the drunk man and end his current assault. Who is this mysterious person? Jiraiya? Tsunade? Both very likely depending on the author, but no, today, Naruto's mysterious savior is…the mysterious OC.

The mysterious stranger proceeds to beat the drunk man with little effort and takes pity on little Naruto. He relates in some way in his mysterious past.

"Hey kid, how would you like to come with me and leave this village for a while?"

Now common sense would say that going with a strange mystery man that you just met 30 seconds ago is a bad idea, but Naruto doesn't know any better because this is the first person who has cared for him, because Naruto can tell in these past 30 seconds. He readily agrees to go and travel for years with this strange new man.

The two of them left Konoha and are now in the forest, where we now learn more about this new comer and Naruto's "destiny."

"Hey mister, what is your name, my name is Naruto."

"Well, lets just call me superOC for now, but that is not important, I have come to tell you that in the future, you will have many powerful enemies, so I will train you to defeat these enemies."

"Umm, if you are so super powered, why don't you kill them?"

"Because, that is not how things are supposed to work, I am supposed to train you and you kill them, it would make for no story if I just went and killed them. Now before we train, I must tell you things about yourself. You have the Kyuubi sealed inside you. Don't ask how I know these things, I just do. The Kyuubi was never really evil, but he was tricked by a genjutsu used by a man named Orochimaru, because for all of the difficulties that the Konoha ninja had fighting it, all it really takes to control the Kyuubi is a simple genjutsu. Anyways, since he is not really evil, I am sure that he will train you and maybe even fuse with you, giving you heightened senses (gasp, who could have seen that one coming.). For now though, we will go through basic training, so put on these weights. There is a total of 100 pounds, which should be bad for you since you are only six, but you have Kyuubi in you, so it must be possible (or my favorites, the story where Naruto trained with 200 tons because the author didn't know different weight units very well, or the story where Naruto started weight training before he even reached one year old.).

And so the training begins.

Next chapter: Naruto meets Itachi and learns about his bloodline.

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…It seemed a lot better in my mind. Anyways, this is kind of a long way to go for a few simple jokes…but oh well, as I have said, if you don't really like these side stories or rants, don't read them, just read the main story. Anyways, until next time.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** …Wow, that was a lot longer wait then I intended, it has been two months now. Anyways, the reasons for the delay are twofold. The first is that shortly after the last chapter, I started working back at my old job for the summer, and so I have been busy working there. The second and main reason for the delay is that I just had a difficult time coming up with ideas for this particular chapter. Anyways, while I am on the note of update speed, I am telling you all right now that demanding that I update will not make me update any faster. If anything, it might make me wait longer to update just to spite you, so don't bother demanding updates, I will update when I am ready, so piss off.

And on an entirely random second thought, I have decided after seeing the episode where Sasuke beats Yoroi that the characters of the Naruto world are entirely stupid. Everyone marvels over how great Sasuke is because of one freaking move. "It's amazing, Sasuke used his bloodline that copies techniques…to copy a technique. Sasuke truly is a genius." But even better is Kakashi's reactions to multiple things. Now I know that the show is trying to make a point about Kakashi's favoritism, but come on. When Sasuke copies a technique with his bloodline and modifies it to come up with the shishi rendan, Kakashi mentally praises him as a genius. Next, although I haven't seen the episode, from what I understand, When Naruto manages to copy and modify the shishi rendan to make the Naruto rendan without a bloodline, Kakashi merely deadpans about how he copied the technique from Sasuke…idiot. Well, anyways, enough of my babbling, I have made you wait long enough as is, so on to the story.

**Shadow Fox**

The month to train for the finals of the Chuunin Exams had come to a close and it was now time for the finals to begin. Naruto and Kin found themselves waiting with the rest of the finalists for the finals to begin. That is, all of the finalists except for one. Naruto looked around the room in search of Sasuke, but was unable to find him. His match was the first match and he was nowhere in sight. Soon, the time had come for Sasuke's match and an announcement was made.

"The match between Uchiha Sasuke and Gaara will be pushed back until after the other matches, the next match will be Tsuchi Kin against Temari. Will the two contestants please enter the arena."

Kin made her way down to the arena where she stood facing her opponent, the blonde kunoichi from the sand village. She knew that this match was going to be much more difficult then her last match. Temari was a serious kunoichi, one who took her position very seriously. She knew from watching her last match that fighting her from a distance was a bad idea, one that would probably cost her the match. As she was deciding on what would be the best course of action, she heard the voice of her opponent.

"This will be easy, your nothing special, the only reason that you made it to this round is because you had an easy opponent last round. Now I'll show your hottie teammate what a real woman is like."

'No…oh hell no…she did not just say that. She just made this fight personal.' Kin thought to herself. There was no way that she was going to lose to this girl who was after the boy she loved. That's right, she said she loved him. While spending the month training with Naruto, she realized that she had never been as happy as she has been since Naruto had arrived. In the short time that she had known him, she discovered that it was beginning to become difficult to imagine life without him. It was then that she began to realize that she may be falling in love with him, but it was not the right time to bring it up to him. The two of them needed to focus on the exam, so she decided that she would tell him after the exam, and see where things go from there. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. She would give Temari one chance and hope that she was talking about Zaku, but if she wasn't…

"Zaku? You can have him."

"No, not him, the other one, the one with the bandages around his head, though I have no idea why, he is gorgeous. He shouldn't hide a face that good."

… … …That was it, now there would be no forgiveness for the bitch, she was going down.

Meanwhile, up in the stands, Zaku could be seen with his head hanging down mumbling something about how none of the girls were ever interested in him.

Genma started the match and as soon as his hand dropped, Kin rushed forward with her scythe. She did not want to give Temari any time to open her fan, so she attacked off the bat in hopes of being able to defeat Temari when she doesn't have the use of her fan. Kin swung her scythe in a sideways slice, only to have it meet with Temari's closed fan. She continued to launch various attacks, only to have all of them blocked by Temari's fan. She hadn't counted on her being so good with her closed fan as a weapon. She wasn't sure what to do, neither of them was getting hurt, but she was exerting energy to attack, while Temari was hardly exerting any energy from simply blocking the strikes. However, if she backed off, then she would have a chance to open her fan.

She continued to attack so that she could have a chance to think about what she should do when suddenly she got an idea. If her plan worked earlier then she anticipated, then so be it, but if it took as long as she thought that it would, then she would probably end up taking a beating to accomplish it.

Kin suddenly jumped back from the exchange and threw some senbon needles at Temari and formed some hand seals. The senbon needles were easily deflected as Temari opened her fan and blew them away where they were imbedded in the wall. She looked around to see that Kin was nowhere to be found. She looked left, then right, then up, which only left down. Kin emerged from the ground, only to meet with…nothing. Temari was floating above the ground on top of her fan. She then proceeded to launch a kamaitachi blast at Kin, knocking her down to the floor.

Kin rose up again and threw more needles at Temari, only to have those deflected into the wall as well. She proceeded to once again form hand seals, this time causing pieces of the ground to rise up and form spikes which were launched towards Temari. However, these were blown to pieces by another kamaitachi blast, which also hurled Kin into the wall.

Kin rose up yet again and proceeded to throw even more senbon needles at Temari, only to have them deflected into the wall yet again.

"This is starting to get old, haven't you realized that strategy won't work." Temari told her opponent, only to adopt a look of surprise when she saw that she was talking to not one, but twenty. She looked around and noticed the strings with bells on them attached to all of the needles that had been blown into the wall.

'She was setting me up with all of those attacks.' Temari thought to herself when she saw the 20 Kins preparing to attack. They all jumped into the air and came down towards her position, ready to strike with their scythes. In a moment of panic, Temari jumped to avoid the attack, only to realize her mistake, as she was now trapped in the air, unable to dodge as the real Kin was above her, and poised to attack with her scythe to end the match.

Temari suddenly came up with an idea to save herself. She used her fan to help give her momentum to roll over as she launched one final kamaitachi blast towards the ground. The added speed caught Kin off guard as Temari rammed her shoulder into Kin's gut. She then grabbed a hold of Kin and rolled over and placed her feet on Kin's stomach while holding her shoulders. As they approached the ground Temari pushed off of Kin as she hit the ground. The force of the blow knocked Kin unconscious.

"Winner, Temari." Genma proclaimed.

Kin was carried off to be treated while Temari gave a wink to Naruto, who simply cocked his head to the side in confusion while Zaku groaned and slapped his forehead at his friend's obliviousness. The next match of the tournament was to begin between Shino and Kankuro. The referee called both fighters down to the ring.

"I quit." Kankuro yelled.

"Kankuro has forfeited, will Neji Hyuuga report to the ring to face Shino Aburame." Genma proclaimed.

Neji walked down to the ring and stared down Shino as he began to give a speech about fate.

"You should forfeit this match, fate has dictated that I shall win this match, for I am a genius, and you are only some average shinobi." Neji proclaimed as he tossed his hair back into the wind. 'That's right, I am the king of dramatic posing.'

"…really?" Shino responded in his usual stoic manner.

"You sound unsure, no one can defy fate, give up now and save yourself the trouble."

"Well…Destiny dictates that I will win."

Neji was completely floored by this revelation, what would be the result of this situation.

"…It seems that we have a conundrum. Which is the stronger force, fate or destiny?" Neji thought aloud.

"Destiny is stronger." Shino proclaimed.

"And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Fate said so."

"Oh, well, who am I to defy fate? I forfeit."

"Winner, Shino Aburame." Genma declared.

As Neji walked to where his team was seated, he thought about everything that had just transpired. "Aw damn it, I just threw the match. That's it, I am quitting with this whole angsty fate bit."

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During the match between Neji and Shino, Izuko pulled Zaku and the recently reawakened Kin aside to an empty room where they came face to face with Orochimaru himself. Izuko left the room while Orochimaru began to address both Zaku and Kin.

"You have both had some disappointing losses in this exam, haven't you?"

The two of them looked downward in shame, both upset for having disappointed Orochimaru.

"Come with me, I have a way to make you both useful." Orochimaru stated

Both Zaku and Kin were having similar thoughts that to be made useful would mean to make them stronger, though both of their thoughts were along slightly different lines.

'The last time that I followed Orochimaru-sama, he gave me power, he gave me these air tunnels in my arms. I wonder what power he can give me now. I need to be stronger.' Zaku thought to himself.

'To be more useful to him, then we need to be more powerful, so he must have some way to make us stronger. I need to be stronger. I lost to that sand girl who is interested in Naruto, what if he starts to like her because she is stronger. I have to get stronger so that Naruto will notice me, so that I won't slow him down, so that I won't lose him.' Kin thought to herself.

So the two of them followed Orochimaru in hopes of becoming stronger.

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"The next match will take place between Nara Shikamaru and Dosu Kinuta, not Uzumaki Naruto as previously stated, that was an error on our part and we truly apologize to all of you for the confusion." Genma stated.

Meanwhile, a random man in the audience could be seen mumbling something about "nit-picky bastards understanding what he meant."

"Will both participants please report to the ring."

Both Naruto and Shikamaru made their way down to the center of the arena to prepare for their match, neither really having any words to say to the other.

Naruto looked through the stands for his teammates, only to notice that they were both missing. This caused him to be a bit depressed, he thought that his teammates would stay to see his match. He then tried to shake his mind of such thoughts, there must have been some reason that they weren't here for his match.

"Let the match begin."

Naruto wasted no time as he quickly launched a punch with his right hand towards Shikamaru's face. Shikamaru blocked this punch, only to see Naruto spin around and launch a backhand strike with his left fist that connected with his head. Naruto then continued by quickly raising his right knee into Shikamaru's gut with no pause in between. This was immediately followed by another spin into a roundhouse kick with his left leg, knocking Shikamaru off to the side.

Shikamaru thought about this style of attack that his opponent was using, wondering about the sudden change in style. In his match against Kiba, he seemed to have a style that focused on defense and countering, but this new style was completely different. From what he could tell, the style seemed to be one that focused on speed to launch an all out offensive attack. There was no blocking in this taijutsu style, only continuous attacks.

Shikamaru was brought out of his thoughts as Naruto attacked once again. Naruto launched a kick with his right leg. Shikamaru dodged the kick, only to be met with a backwards kick as Naruto planted his right foot and kicked back with his left foot. Shikamaru barely had time to recover as a right handed punch came at his face. He decided that he simply needed to attempt to attack him in some way, since his style had no blocking whatsoever. He dodged the punch and lashed out with his right arm, only to have Naruto spin around the punch and pull his arm behind his back. He then proceeded to hook his right leg around the front of Shikamaru's left leg and pull back, driving them both forward and slamming Shikamaru's face into the ground.

'So that's what he did. He trained this past month in a taijutsu style with no blocking, and then combined it with his old style so that he counters instead of blocking.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he slowly got up from off the ground.

"So how do you like my new fighting style? I call it the Shadow Blitz style." Naruto said.

"It is an impressive style, you caught me off guard there. But enough of this taijutsu exchange, I am not much of one for taijutsu anyway. I want to see which of us is the better shadow user. I didn't spend this last month training for nothing." Shikamaru replied with a lazy smirk.

Meanwhile, up in the stands, the other members of team 10 could be found on the ground, having fainted at the revelation that Shikamaru actually trained.

Shikamaru suddenly proceeded through some hand seals which caused a shadowed claw to emerge from the ground as it snaked its way around Naruto's body on its way towards his throat.

"Do you really think that this technique is going to beat me?" Naruto asked his lazy opponent.

"No, but I figure that if you don't get out of it very soon, it is going to cause quite a bit of damage."

Naruto looked down and discovered that there was an explosive tag on the clawed hand. Shikamaru must have dropped it onto the ground while he was being attacked, planning for this ahead of time. The hand had picked up the explosive tag when it came out of the ground and he was now running out of options. It would take too much time to melt into the shadows, he had to find some other way to escape. An idea suddenly popped into his head how to escape this situation. He quickly pulled out his chain whip and lashed out towards Shikamaru. The chain wrapped around his waist as he was pulled towards Naruto until he was right beside him.

"You might want to get rid of this explosive tag, unless of course you want to see which of us can take an explosion better."

Shikamaru struggled to get away, but the chain was latched onto itself and held him in place. He could get away from it, but not before the explosive tag went off. He had no other choice as he grabbed the tag from the shadowed hand and threw it into the air. They had escaped the explosion, but the blast was still close enough for the two of them to be thrown back from the force.

Naruto was the first to recover and he began forming seals. Soon, a dome of shadows was forming around Shikamaru, the same way that Naruto had taken care of his opponent in the Forest of Death. Shikamaru was surrounded by the shadows and couldn't see a thing. Both Naruto and Kyo had popped out of the shadowed dome to attack, only to pull back at the pain from connecting with something hard. The dome began to disappear and in the center could be seen a shadowed mass in the shape of a human. The shadows began to peel back and underneath Shikamaru could be seen.

"Not a bad technique, but it provides me with plenty of shadows to work with, even enough to make a shield all around my body like this."

Shikamaru knew that dragging this fight out was not a good idea as he did not have the highest of chakra reserves. He had thought about this fight for a long time during his month of training and he determined that he had three trump cards to use, one attack, one strategy, and one last resort. He needed to end it quick so he decided that he would try the attack, then the strategy, and then if all else fails, then on to the last resort. He began to quickly form hand seals and before Naruto could interfere, the last seal was completed and a dome of shadows began to form around Naruto. The dome continued to expand around him and eventually became a full sphere. The sphere began to rise into the air as a large shadowed claw emerged from the ground and grasped the sphere.(1)

"Surrender or else this claw will squeeze the sphere until it bursts." Shikamaru called out.

"Hell no I won't surrender." Naruto replied.

Naruto smirked as he looked at the technique around him. It was quite an impressive technique he had to admit. However, Shikamaru still did not realize that Kyo was able to use the shadows as well, and between the two of them, they could easily escape by each creating a shadow hole to travel through. He trusted Kyo enough to know that he would have taken the opportunity to sneak behind Shikamaru and open a shadow hole there, so he formed a hole for himself to escape this sphere.

Shikamaru sighed, he would have really preferred to not have to kill somebody, but his opponent refused to surrender, and this move only resulted in death, there was no injuring, merely killing. He gave another sigh as he completed the jutsu, clenching the clawed hand and crushing the sphere, causing it to burst. He looked to the referee to announce his victory, but found it difficult to speak. It might have had something to do with the chain whip wrapped around his neck. Naruto moved forward and moved his grip higher on the chain whip until he was right behind Shikamaru. He kicked the back of his knee joints, driving him down to his knees as he pulled back on the chain whip, making it difficult for him to breathe.

"Do you give up?" Naruto questioned.

Suddenly, Naruto released his grip on the chain whip as he got down on his knees and then stood up again along with Shikamaru.

"I practiced over the month to get my kagemane to travel behind me to capture people by surprise." Shikamaru explained as he made a few random motions that Naruto mimicked.

"Didn't we already see the result of this in the second part of the exam. This jutsu can't hold me."

'Actually, I am counting on that for trump card number two.' Shikamaru thought to himself.

Naruto began to melt into the shadows to escape the kagemane. Once he was completely gone, Shikamaru pulled out a special tag, one which instead of causing an explosion caused a bright flash of light. The bright flash temporarily removed all of the shadows from the area.

"Now he is trapped traversing through the shadows, call the match so I can hurry and get him out of there." Shikamaru told the referee.

Before the referee could declare Shikamaru the winner, Naruto emerged from a shadow hole in front of Shikamaru.

"How did you get out of there?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto smirked as the hole once again took the form of Kyo, Shikamaru stared with a look of disbelief on his face.

"What the hell, that fox can use shadows too, what the hell kind of fox is that?"

"It doesn't matter what he is, the fact of the matter is that he can use shadows, and you are running out of options, just give up now."

This was it. There was no other choice for Shikamaru now except to use his final trump card, his last resort. He really did not want to do this to him, but he couldn't lose to him, even if it meant that he had to win this way.

"You know, I have been thinking about this match a lot over the past month, thinking about some things that I have seen during the earlier exams and I have a bit of a theory regarding you." Shikamaru took a second to pause before he continued, "The obsession with keeping your face covered, wearing a mask in addition to having your face wrapped in bandages. The reluctance that you had when we saw your team attacking team seven in the Forest of Death, the things that your teammate said to Sakura, the things that you said to her when you knocked her out, the reaction of Sasuke when he looked into your eye, the looks on Sakura and Sasuke's faces when we asked them about Naruto…"

Naruto was getting a bit panicked by this point, did he know? No, there was no way that he could know, but all of these points that he was making, they seemed to be leading up to one thing. He needed to calm down, breathe deep, there was no way that he could know. His breathing unconsciously sped up as he waited for Shikamaru to finish.

"I admit that the hair threw me off for a while, but it is easily explained. I suppose that I should welcome you back home…Naruto."

At that moment, a number of explosions could be heard from within the city of Konoha.

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**A/N: **Anyways, I am sorry again for the wait. While I can't promise anything, the nest chapter should be a lot less of a wait as I have most of the ideas for it already, it is just a matter of how much I have to work, and bringing myself to write.

Also, as a mini contest, if anyone can identify where the technique that has the (1) by it (minus the shadow focus) came from, then I will answer any one question that the person has about the plot, assuming that they want to ask a question and not be surprised later. Also, if the correct answer is in a review, then the contest will end with that person because then anyone can see the answer.

Lastly before the rant, for all of his promoting of my story in his profile, I will recommend the story All for One by Vesvius no Gobi Doragon (was it really that hard to just leave it as Vesvius, this one is just so complicated.). It is a fairly good Naru/harem story, probably rated fifth on my list of Naru/harem because the others are just so dang good. On that note, I might as well recommend the whole list of the top 5 Naru/harem stories.

1&2(I can't decide which I like more). From Ramen with Love and With the Heart and Underwear of Fire

3. Trouble with a capital T (updates very slowly)

4. Single Ninja on the Town (the ending bothers me)

5. All for One

And now, on to chapter 2 of "The adventures of Naruto and Super OC."

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A few months had passed since Naruto had begun his training with Super OC, and he was getting far stronger. He had increased his weights to 6 times what he had started with and had learned over 50 jutsus from Super OC, as well as 10 demonic jutsus from Kyuubi. It was at this point that they found a strange man in the forest and they wondered who he was.

"Hello, my name is Itachi."

"Hello Itachi." Naruto replied.

"Uchiha Itachi, prodigy of the Uchiha clan and the murderer of his entire clan, though I feel that is not the whole story." Super OC replied, because Super OC has an unnatural insight into all of these matters, he knows everything.

"You are correct unnaturally powerful newcomer, the murderer pf our clan was really Orochimaru using a henge, because as we have seen before, nobody can see through a genjutsu cast by Orochimaru. It's almost like some kind of bloodline ability. Hell, while we are at it, let's blame Orochimaru for Kisame's murder of the mist daimyo, and let's blame him for Shukaku being sealed in Gaara, and for all of Akatsuki's crimes, because no one can see through a genjutsu cast by Orochimaru, and it is easier to just have one bad guy in all of this."

"Who are those people?" Naruto asked

"Not important right now."

"Anyways Itachi, why don't you stay and train with us take make Naruto even stronger." Super OC asked.

"Yeah, stay with us Itachi-niisan." Because Naruto has to see Itachi as an older brother, it's just better that way.

And so Itachi stayed with them to train.

A few more months had passed and Naruto was stronger then ever. His weights had increased to ten times what it was mentioned earlier, and he learned 150 jutsus, in addition to the rasengan which Super OC somehow knows. It was at this time that Super OC has a discussion with Naruto.

"Naruto, did you know that you have a bloodline?"

"I have a bloodline, really? What is it?"

"Your bloodline is very special, it is a very special doujutsu with all of the abilities of the Sharingan and the Byakugan."

"So does that make me half Hyuuga and half Uchiha?"

"No, it just means that the author realized that coming up with a useful doujutsu is harder then it seems, so they copped out and combined the two given to them."

"Who's 'the Author.'" Naruto asked

Suddenly, the author appears out of no where.

"No more questions Naruto. Hey everyone, look, I put myself in my story, isn't that funny, ha-ha…ha-ha…Please laugh…ha-ha…ha-ha…I'm lonely."

The three of them oddly stare at the disappearing person and go back to training.

Next chapter: Kyuubi interactions.

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…that's all.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Well, I decided to try and update quickly since I left the last chapter on such a cruel cliffhanger. For this chapter, I was never really able to get a definitive answer to how the Edo Tensei sacrifice works, so I am making it in the way that best suits my story. Anyways, now to address two issues.

Yes, I realize that the likely thing for Naruto to do would be to attack Shikamaru before he revealed anything, but that would not make for much of a story. In real life, the person probably would have attacked to interrupt him, but in real life you also can't make dragons of fire with hand signs. It is all part of "The willing suspension of disbelief," one of the core elements of theatre, movies, anime, games or just about anything else that involves a story, so to all of you complaining about how unlikely that was…well, to hell with you.

2. Someone has accused me of making Kin a "Mary-Sue." Now correct me if I am wrong on my terminology, but I believe that a Mary-Sue is an OC character that is ridiculously overpowered, like Super OC only in girl form. Now Kin is not an OC, and as for strength, the only person that she has beaten so far is Sakura, and to an extent Ino, and to be honest, who can't beat them at that point in the story. She then proceeds to get beaten by Temari, so how exactly could that be considered overpowered? I don't know if the reviewer is an idiot, or if I misunderstood the term, but once again, it is my story and I will do what I want, so to hell with him.

Well, I feel better now. Anyways, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

Naruto began to quickly look around the arena to take in what was happening, there were explosions in the village, about three quarters of the audience was asleep, the Hokage and the Kazekage had taken off and many sound and sand nin were suddenly attacking the leaf ninjas. Why were they attacking the leaf? Naruto had no idea what was going on, but his thoughts soon wandered to his missing teammates.

'Oh no, I have a bad feeling about this, I need to find them, quickly.' Naruto thought.

Naruto was about to take off to look for his friends but was stopped as he came face to face with his old sensei, Kakashi, who had been waiting at the edge of the arena to make a big entrance with Sasuke when he heard what Shikamaru said.

"Naruto, is it really you?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto wanted to talk to his old sensei, he wanted to let his old team know that he was ok, he wanted to be able to just talk to all of them and see how they all were, but there was no time right now, he had to go and find his new teammates before anything bad happened. He started to take off again but was stopped again by Kakashi.

"Naruto, this attack, are you part of it? Are you our enemy now?"

Naruto turned towards Kakashi, his eyes holding a pleading look as he spoke, "Kakashi, I knew nothing of this attack, and I would like to help you and take the time to talk, but I have to go find my teammates, I am worried about them. Consider me trash if you want, but I can't abandon them and become worse then trash."

Naruto began to melt into the shadows and this time, Kakashi made no move to stop him. How could he without being a hypocrite? He knew that if he were in Naruto's situation right now, he would want to do the same thing. He slightly smiled, knowing that Naruto was alive and seeing him take his own words to heart. He then went off to go and deal with the attacking sound nins.

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Orochimaru was pissed, he had arrived at the hokage tower and was fighting his old teacher, just as he had planned. He had not, however, planned on Jiraiya being there as well, waiting for him inside the tower. How the hell did they know about what was going on? How did they plan for this? He looked towards his former sensei when he began to speak.

"Orochimaru my old student, you really shouldn't underestimate our skills in observation and deduction. Did you really think that you could hide Naruto in this exam and not get our attention. First you give Sasuke the cursed seal, then you let Anko see you, both of these alerting us to your presence. Then you risk sending Naruto to the Chuunin exams here. It was obvious that you were planning something if you were willing to risk him getting caught. So when I heard that Jiraiya was in town, I called him and we planned on what to do. Are you really so arrogant that you thought I wouldn't recognize you in your disguise?"

Orochimaru was upset and a bit worried, but he couldn't let that show, he smirked as he talked to them, "Well, almost our whole team is here, if only Tsunade-hime were here, then we could have a full team reunion."

Meanwhile, off in a distant casino, Tsunade was talking to Shizune about the over usage of sneezing jokes.

Back at the battle, Orochimaru decided that he didn't like the two against one odds, so he decided to make it four against two, he liked those odds much better

"Dosu, Zaku, Kin, come out now."

The three teammates emerged, wondering why they were being called out during a battle against the Sandaime hokage and another Sannin.

"What do you plan on doing with three genin Orochimaru? You know that they wouldn't stand a chance against us?" Jiraiya asked

Orochimaru merely smirked as he walked over towards the three teammates.

"It is time that you all made yourselves useful to me, prove your loyalty and give your lives for my benefit."

Orochimaru then formed some hand seals before he reached out and grabbed Dosu by the head. Dosu's vision began to blur as he felt as if the life was being sucked out of him. Through the blur in his eyes, he could faintly see what looked like a box coming out of the ground with the number one on it. He watched as the box came fully out of the ground, the last thing that he saw before the last of his life left him and he collapsed to the ground as a lifeless corpse.

Sarutobi and Jiraiya watched as the Shodaime emerged from the box. They were disgusted that Orochimaru would use such a technique, and yet at the same time they were worried. The two of them together could easily beat Orochimaru, but if he was able to bring back the bodies of previous hokages to fight for him, then they could be in trouble.

Zaku and Kin were not really worried about who it was coming out of the box, that didn't matter to them, they were simply scared. Dosu was dead, and it wasn't any leaf shinobi that killed him, it was Orochimaru, their own leader. What scared them even more was that he had the same thing planned for them. The Shodaime rushed forwards to attack Sarutobi and Jiraiya, as well as to keep them occupied while Orochimaru proceeded with the next otherworldly summoning. Both Jiraiya and Sarutobi were trying to attack the Shodaime quickly and then get past him to stop Orochimaru, but any damage that they caused was healed almost immediately, since his body wasn't a natural one. Orochimaru smirked as he approached his remaining two subordinates.

"So which of you would like to be the next sacrifice for my summoning?" Orochimaru asked them.

Both of them began to back away as Orochimaru continued advancing towards them. Then suddenly, Zaku jumped out in front of Kin.

"Quick Kin, run away! Get out of here and go find Naruto while I hold him off." Zaku told her.

"Zaku no, you won't stand a chance against Orochimaru, we both need to run, I can't just leave you behind." Kin replied.

"If we both run now, he will kill us both. Get out of here and try to find a way out of the barrier, then go find Naruto."

"…but…"

"GO NOW!"

Kin took one last look at her teammate before she ran away with tears in her eyes. She may not have liked him much before, but after Naruto had shown up, the three of them had been very close. She was soon out of Zaku's sight, leaving him alone with Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru-sama, what are you doing? We all looked up to you. You saved me as a child, you gave me power. I had vowed that day that I would serve you to the best of my abilities, so why would you throw us away like this?"

Orochimaru then began to laugh as he fixed his gaze with Zaku's, "You are all simply tools to me, tools to be used and thrown away. You say that you want to serve me as best as you can, then offer yourself as a sacrifice so that I may achieve victory."

Orochimaru began walking towards Zaku again, his arm outstretched towards Zaku's head. Just as he was about to grab onto Zaku's head, Zaku jumped back and shot out a Zankuuha blast towards Orochimaru, knocking him back a bit.

""Stay back, or else I will use the weapon that you gave me to destroy you." Zaku told Orochimaru. This only caused Orochimaru to laugh.

"Do you really think that I would give you a weapon that I myself could not defeat? You only prolong the inevitable."

Zaku smirked at that. He knew that he could not defeat Orochimaru and had no intention of doing so. He planned on doing exactly what Orochimaru had said, prolonging the fight, giving Kin time to escape.

'Naruto, my friend, the only thing that I can do for you now is buy some time for Kin to escape and find you. I wish you both the best.' He thought to himself.

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Kin was running, tears blurring her vision as she made her way through the tower. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find a way out of this barrier. She had just reached yet another dead end, but this time when she turned around, she saw Orochimaru, leaving her trapped.

"Ah, my last sacrifice. You really should not have run away like that. You should have just accepted your role as my sacrifice. Oh, and don't bother trying to put up a fight, it would be quite a hassle, and it didn't do your friend very much good."

Kin collapsed to her knees. Zaku was dead, and she would be next. She couldn't get away, and she wouldn't have a chance fighting against Orochimaru. Why did this have to happen? Just when she had figured out how she felt, she never even got to tell him. Naruto…she wanted him to be with her right now. Not to be sacrificed, but she didn't want to leave him, she didn't want to die here…alone…

"Such useful sacrifices you all have made. Not only can I use your lives to summon past hokages to fight by my side, but I am sure that Naruto will be very upset once I tell him that his dear teammates were killed by the leaf ninja. He will be upset, who knows what he will unleash."

Orochimaru smirked as he formed some hand seals and reached his arm out towards Kin's head. Kin had resigned herself to death, there was nothing that she could do. Tears flowed from her eyes as his hand reached her head. The last thing that she could think about was how she would never see Naruto again as her world went black.

Orochimaru smiled as a box with the number four emerged half way out of the ground. There was no way that Sarutobi and Jiraiya would be able to defeat himself and three of the past four hokages, one of which being the Yondaime, considered the most powerful of the hokages. Oh how he despised that man; using him to destroy the village would be fun. The summoning was half complete, there was nothing that could be done to stop it. However, he suddenly had to remove his hand from Kin's head as a shadow spike shot out of the floor towards his arm.

"What the Hell do you think that you are doing to Kin-chan, she is one of your own soldiers!" Naruto yelled as he emerged from the shadows. He had managed to get under the barrier through the shadows and had arrived to the sight of Orochimaru sucking the life out of Kin as a box was emerging from the ground.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. I was hoping that you would not be here to see this. You see, they may be my ninjas, but they are useless as they are. They were simply pawns, pawns that I sacrificed for much more powerful pieces. Dosu was easy enough to deal with, but Zaku was much more difficult about things, but he still didn't last too long."

Naruto was seething at this point. His teammates were gone, his first real friend his own age killed by the man he served, and Kin…He began to see red when suddenly, both Sarutobi and Jiraiya appeared, along with the Shodaime and Nidaime. Sarutobi saw the box with the number four on it and immediately began to form hand seal. When he was finished, a fireball flew out of his mouth and incinerated the box.

Orochimaru frowned that he could not complete the summoning of the Yondaime, but he figured that he could still achieve victory with the Shodaime and Nidaime.

"Humph, it's a shame that you interrupted my jutsu like that, making my sacrifice useless. Left between life and death from an unfinished jutsu, I dare say that the only person who could save her would be our dear friend Tsunade-hime. No matter though, I should be able to take care of the two of you with only two hokages to assist me." Orochimaru smirked until he suddenly felt a chain wrapped around his neck. He turned around to see that Naruto had attacked him. His smirk returned though as he reached up and pulled the Kusanagi blade from out of his mouth. He then proceeded to cut through the chain, releasing himself while Naruto stumbled back from loss of resistance.

"Naruto-kun, you are a much more valuable piece then a pawn, I would have preferred to use you as my next vessel, but that is not possible. However, remember that all pieces are used for the benefit of the king. You are a missing nin, you have nowhere else to go, now stand aside or I will dispose of you just as I disposed of your teammates."

A sudden burst of chakra and killing intent caused Orochimaru, as well as Sarutobi and Jiraiya to look over at a now enraged Naruto.

"**Kid, this is as much chakra as you can take. Your body can handle more of my chakra then it did the last time you used it, but you still can't use much." **Kyuubi told him in his mind.

Naruto rushed forwards with a barrage of punches and kicks, all the while working to avoid any counterattacks Orochimaru made with his sword. Even with the power boost that he got from Kyuubi, he was no where near Orochimaru's skill, experience or knowledge. Add to that the fact that he was completely blinded by rage, and the result was that Naruto's assault was not really amounting to anything. Orochimaru soon found an opening in Naruto's guards and backhanded him with the hilt of his Kusanagi, knocking him off to the side.

"It is a shame that you chose to betray me like this Naruto, you would have been a very useful subordinate in time, but I am afraid that now I have to end this."

Orochimaru charged forwards with his Kusanagi, intending to impale Naruto with it. Naruto closed his eyes and awaited the blow, only to feel a warm liquid hit him. He looked up and saw the body of Sarutobi, run through by the Kusanagi sword still in Orochimaru's hands. Sarutobi had seen what was about to happen to Naruto and rushed towards him and he intercepted the blow with his own body.

"Old man…" Naruto stuttered out.

"Naruto, I am glad to see that you are ok…(cough)…I am glad that I got to see you one more time before I go."

"No, you'll be ok old man, just please don't die."

"Sorry Naruto, but I won't pull through this one (cough), Naruto, know that you are not a missing nin, you can come back to Konoha if you want to (cough)."

Orochimaru smirked. He may not have intended for it to go this way, but he still managed to achieve his goal of killing his old teacher. Now killing his old teammate and Naruto would be easy. His confidence turned to fear however when he noticed what Sarutobi had been preparing as he ran towards Naruto.

"The Shiki-Fuujin." Orochimaru sputtered out.

"Correct my former student, it is a kage's job to protect his people, even at the cost of his own life."

The Death God himself soon appeared, and the artificial bodies of the former hokages were soon turned to dust. Orochimaru himself felt his soul being torn away from him, but Sarutobi's wound from the Kusanagi caught up to him, and only managed to seal away the use of his arms before he fell down, dead.

'Damn it, it will be difficult for me to fight with Jiraiya when I don't have the use of my hands. It looks like I will have to retreat for now. I will deal with Jiraiya and Naruto at another time, but first, I should have a little fun.'

"Well, it seems that I will have to take my leave for now, but before I go, let me leave you a parting gift Naruto-kun."

Orochimaru's neck suddenly began to stretch out towards the body of Kin. Naruto rushed over towards her, but was unable to stop Orochimaru as he bit down into Kin's neck. Kin's body jerked unconsciously as Naruto finally reached her and held her in his arms. He saw three small markings take shape on her neck and he wondered what he had done to her.

Orochimaru had the four members of the sound five release their barrier as he made his retreat. Jiraiya chased after him, but was unable to catch up to him as multiple sound nin appeared to slow him down. He eventually gave up chase and went back to have a talk with the boy, Naruto. When he returned to the Hokage tower though, he found the boy missing, along with the bodies of the three sound genin.

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Naruto stared at the two makeshift gravestones that he placed in the spot that he buried Dosu and Zaku. He had never really had much of a chance to get to know Dosu, but he was still upset by his death. Then there was Zaku, the first friend his age that he had ever had. He was hit much harder by this death then he had been by Dosu's. He cursed himself for not being able to find his teammates sooner. If he had found them sooner, if he had arrived sooner, then he might have been able to help them escape, they could have still been alive right now. As he stared at these two graves, he thought of a third death that had hit him as hard as Zaku's death had, The Sandaime hokage himself, more affectionately known to Naruto as "The old man." The old man was the first person who had shown any form of concern or care for Naruto, he couldn't believe that he was gone, sacrificing himself for his sake. Tears began to well up in his eyes at the loss of the people important to him. He had never had that many people who cared about him, and he had just lost about half of those people in the course of one day.

His thoughts then turned to the man that had caused all of this. Orochimaru…he had killed them all himself, used them like tools and threw them away when they were not needed anymore. His thoughts flashed back to Zabuza and Haku, but there was a big difference between Zabuza and Orochimaru. While he never showed it much, Zabuza had cared for Haku, but Orochimaru…they were all nothing more then tools for him. He knew that he was no match for Orochimaru yet, but he vowed that one day, he would have his revenge.

He then proceeded to look at the girl that he carried in his arms. Kin…she was not dead, and yet at the same time, she was not alive. Not only that, but she had those strange markings on her neck that Orochimaru had given her when he bit her. Naruto stood up as he began to steel his resolve. He had failed his other teammates, but he would not fail her. He shivered uncontrollably at the thought of losing her. He cared for her a great deal, he just couldn't lose her now, it would be unbearable. He begin to walk away from the graves, vowing to return at another time. As he walked away, he had only one thought on his mind.

'Tsunade.'

----------

In the forests of Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke could be seen fighting for his life against a seemingly invincible opponent in the sand nin, Gaara. He was low on Chakra and was losing the fight, even with the use of his cursed seal. It seemed that he was doomed to die here at the hands of this crazed sand nin, never to accomplish his goal of killing his brother. Just as a hand of sand made its way towards him, it suddenly stopped as the boy held his head in pain, seemingly talking to himself.

Gaara was fighting with the voice of Shukaku in his head. While the demon was usually restless and bloodthirsty like this, it was going absolutely nuts right now. He could not make out the entirety of what it was saying, he could only understand broken fragments of it.

"**Fox…nearby…like me…but different…no power…no control…kill it…kill the fox…we will be greatest…we will be lord…"**

"We will go after this fox once we are done with our mission, we will attack in Konoha, wouldn't you like their blood?" Gaara asked the demon inside of him.

"**NO…WE GO NOW…FOX MORE IMPORTANT…GO NOW!**"

Gaara held his head due to the enormous pain he was feeling due to the Shukaku. It would not go away unless he obeyed the demon, so he began to run off, leaving Sasuke, Sakura and Temari behind him in the forest as he went to look for this "Fox."

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**A/N:** And that is it for this chapter. Sorry that I kind of avoided most fights, but I really didn't feel like dealing with them this chapter. Anyways, I would also like to see no being nitpicky over jutsu use in this chapter, I tried to keep things fairly accurate, but this way worked best for me, so deal with it.

On a second note, yes I did kill Zaku, no whining. I just tend to like death as a plot point, so it is pretty much guaranteed that in any story that I write, someone is going to die. However, I can't believe that you all thought that I was going to kill of Kin. It can't really be much of a Naru/Kin fic if they never even admit there love to each other. I am ashamed of you all for thinking that.

On a third note, I forgot to mention two Naru/Harem stories in my list that are up there, and I felt bad because they are good, and one of them his a nice scene about Kin loving Naruto(Viva le Revolution), although it is still in the early stages. Anyways, those stories are **Naruto: Love Hina Style** (not a crossover, but an inspired by fic) and **Girl Fight**. Both of these are written by the same author. Go, read, enjoy.

And on a last note, I would like to say that I am amazed that there was actually a winner to last chapters contest. Congratulations to **Veiled Reticence** for recognizing the technique from Grandia 2…I honestly didn't think that anyone would get that one.

And now, chapter three of "The adventures of Naruto and Super OC."

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Naruto was now at upper jounin level strength thanks to his training, and he was only 8 years old. One night when he fell asleep, he found himself in a sewer. He walked forwards and found a large fox in a cave.

"**Hello Kit.**"

"Hi, are you Kyuubi."

"**Yes, let me take on a human form so that it is easier to talk to me and so that the writer can stop using bold type.**"

Kyuubi then turned into a girl with red hair, and nine tails, and a large chest, and other generic female Kyuubi descriptions.

"Holy hell, you are a girl!"

"Yes, indeed I am. I would like to say that I am very sorry for the way that those villagers have treated you because of me, it breaks my heart every time I see it. You do not deserve this kit."

"It's ok, it is not your fault."

"I am glad to hear that."

"Hey Kyuubi?"

"Yes?"

"Can I call you kaa-san?"

Then A tear formed in Kyuubi's eye, because all that it really takes to make a demon cry is for a young innocent boy to call it mother."

"Or course you can my little kit…ok we are done here, wake up now."

A few months had passed, an Naruto had now reached Anbu levels of strength. He was reading a scroll when he accidentally moved the paper across his finger, making a small cut.

"**Quick Kit, come to my cage!**" Kyuubi shouted in his mind. Naruto complied and entered the sewer in his mindscape.

"**Quick, tear a small piece off of the seal!**"

Naruto complied and soon felt a rush of Chakra throughout his body. He suddenly got taller, his eyes turned red, his ears got pointed, his teeth got longer and sharper, his whisker marks more defined, other generic demon-Naruto description, and if the author feels so inclined, maybe even a tail. Naruto looked at his new form for a while, and then noticed the small paper cut on his finger healing up.

"…YOU FUSED WITH ME OVER A STUPID PAPER CUT!"

"**I'M SORRY, ALRIGHT. I PANICKED WHEN I SAW YOU HURT.**"

"Oh well, I forgive you kaa-san. It's not so bad, and now I am even more powerful, probably Sannin level."

"**Well, that's good, now go back and train some more.**"

And so, that is what he did.

Next chapter: Naruto returns to Konoha to join the academy.

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That's all for now.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** Well, sorry for the wait yet again…but then again, maybe I am not, because I am upset with many of you. I spend time trying to write a new story for everyone, and the majority of you don't even read it…it makes me sad. Ok, I am not really upset with everyone, but I do want you all to go read it and respond to it. I like the main idea for it, although the writing is a bit rough thus far. Besides, I wanted to try to have the highest reviewed stories for multiple unusual pairings for Naruto…support my ambition!

All that aside, on with the story.

**Shadow Fox**

The more time Naruto spent searching, the more he was beginning to hate this Tsunade woman. If it wasn't for the fact that he needed her to help Kin, he was sure that the first thing he would do upon meeting her would be to attack her. From all of the rumors he had heard, he was sure that she was in the Fire country, but the problem was that she never seemed to stay in one place for very long. Apparently, Tsunade was a blonde woman with brown eyes and a rather large bust who loved to drink and gamble, although she was very bad at gambling and always ended up in debt, thus the reason that she was never in one place for long.

So it was that Naruto found himself falling into a routine in his search. When he reached a new town, the first thing that he would do would be to locate a hotel. He would then go and temporarily leave Kin on the roof of the hotel with a kage bunshin to watch over her. It would not do well for him to walk into a hotel with a seemingly unconscious girl and requesting a room, he didn't need to get run out of town by angry women. Once he checked in to a room, he would go get Kin and then slip into the room and leave her on the bed with the kage bunshin still watching over her. He would then proceed to ask around the town for any information on the whereabouts of Tsunade, particularly asking for information around the bars and casinos. Once he was done getting information, he would go back to the hotel room to sleep, and then he would head out the next day to move on to the next town that Tsunade had been rumored to be in.

This process had been repeated through four towns and he was starting to get tired of this whole process, but he couldn't give up, he was not going to let Kin down, he would save her, no matter what. He would just have to continue searching until he found Tsunade.

So it was that Naruto found himself in yet another town searching for the blonde haired Sannin, the only one who could save Kin. He entered one of the bars of the city and looked around, and began to head back out when he jerked his head back around. Sitting at the bar, swirling her Sake around as she stared into it was a blonde woman with brown eyes and a large bust, and with her was a woman seemingly in her twenties with black hair. This woman fit the description that he was given of Tsunade; he had to go ask her if that's who she was.

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Tsunade sat there staring into her sake as she swirled it around. It had been quite a day for her. First, she had been approached by her old teammate Orochimaru who had asked her to heal his arms. She had heard the news spread from Konoha that Sarutobi-sensei was dead, and that it was Orochimaru that had killed him. She would have simply refused him outright, but he had offered her something that she hadn't expected, he offered to bring back both Nawaki and Dan. She was skeptical at the offer, people couldn't simply be brought back from the dead exactly like they were before, something was bound to be off about this resurrection but… she missed them so much…to just be able to see them again…she would give just about anything.

Orochimaru had left, giving her time to think about his offer. After he had left, she had received a visit from her other teammate, Jiraiya. He had come to ask her on behalf of the council to become the Hokage. She scoffed at the thought of going back to that village and becoming their Hokage, she wasn't going back to that damn village that had taken everything away from her. She would sooner accept Orochimaru's offer then she would return to the leaf village to become Hokage and throw her life away. It had been a rather strange and eventful day for her, one that had drug up a lot of old memories that she would rather not remember. She sighed as she stared into her sake cup, she really needed to get drunk right now, and yet she could do nothing but stare into her sake. She continued to stare into her cup when she noticed a kid with black hair approaching her.

"Excuse me, would you happen to be Tsunade by any chance?" The boy asked her.

She stared at the boy in silence for awhile, wondering why it was that this kid wanted her. She had already had enough visitors popping up for a while; she didn't need any more today.

"So what if I am? What do you want from me?"

"I need your help, a friend of mine is in need of your abilities, will you please come with me to the hotel that I am staying at to take a look at her?"

"Kid…if this is some excuse to try to get me into a hotel room so that you can try to do something to me…I would advise against it, I am a Sannin…"

"…I am going to pretend that you didn't just think I was going to attempt something like that, now please come with me to the hotel room."

"Tsunade-sama, is it really a good idea to follow this kid, we know absolutely nothing about him." Shizune said to her mentor.

'Although we do know that he is pretty cute for his age…no, bad Shizune, no thinking like that, he seems too young for you, and then you would have to deal with the constant pedophile jokes from Tsunade.' She thought to herself.

"I don't see any harm in going to see what is wrong with his friend. Besides, I don't think that he would stand much of a chance against me if he tried anything." Tsunade replied.

And so it was that the three of them left for the hotel room.

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Whatever Tsunade had suspected from the condition of the friend of this mystery person, it was nothing like this. The condition of the girl that she saw lying on the bed was different than just about anything that she had ever seen before. She was not dead, and yet at the same time, she was not quite alive either, it was as if her spirit had been pulled out of her. Her body still continued with many of the functions that would be needed to keep her alive, and yet that was the only sign of life in her. She could probably cure her, but the procedure would most likely be very dangerous for herself. While she was looking over the girl, she saw the three marks on her neck.

"You two work for Orochimaru?" She asked the boy. She was a bit surprised by the hatred that the boy suddenly showed at the mention of her old teammate.

"We worked with him for a little while, but that bastard is the one who did this to her. He sacrificed his own ninja to summon some boxes with people in them."

Tsunade realized what technique it was that Orochimaru most likely used, the Edo Tensei. That explained how it was that the girl came to be in this state, an interrupted summoning would cause this. She could definitely fix this, but the risk to herself was great. Her mind wondered if this was how Orochimaru planned on bringing back Nawaki and Dan, would she really allow someone else to be sacrificed so that she could see them again. It would not even really be them that she saw, but simply a reconstruction of their bodies. Was it really worth it? She shook her head clear of all of these thoughts as she turned her attention back to the boy.

"Sorry kid, but there is no reason for me to help her. Nothing in it for me." She told the boy.

Shizune stared at her mentor with her jaw dropped. Why was Tsunade refusing to heal this girl when apparently she knew how? Tsunade usually didn't ask for something in return for healing people, so why now?

Naruto was pissed now. He had just spent a lot of time going from town to town in search of this woman, and now that he finally found her, she refused to help because she didn't get anything out of it.

"What the hell is wrong with you! You're just going to leave her like this when you can do something to help her! What kind of Medic are you?" He yelled at her.

"Look kid, for me to heal her, I put myself at great risk, and I don't feel like putting myself in that position. Besides, if I heal her, then she will just go back to Orochimaru anyways."

"Kin-chan wouldn't do that; she would never go back to him." Naruto yelled at her.

"Kid, you don't understand how Orochimaru works. Do you know what this mark on her neck is?"

"No, but I know that she got it when Orochimaru bit her on the neck. What is it?"

"That is Orochimaru's cursed seal. Those who live through being given the seal can use it for a boost in chakra and power, but it also leaves them open to constant suggestion from Orochimaru. Essentially, she belongs to him now, and I see no point in risking my life just so that she can go right back to him."

Tsunade turned around and began to walk towards the door. When she reached the door however, Naruto spoke to her one last time.

"I am not going to give up. You are the only one who can heal Kin-chan, and I am going to make sure that is what you do. I failed the rest of my team, and I promised that I would not let the same thing happen to her."

"And what about her seal? Once I help her, she will most likely just go back to Orochimaru."

"I don't believe that she will go back to him. She is stronger then people give her credit for. I believe in her and that she can resist any temptations that he might throw at her."

Tsunade looked at the boy one last time. She was impressed by the dedication that the boy showed to his friend, but still…

"Everyone loses someone important to them at some point. You can't save everyone. Just move on with your life."

"I don't go back on my word, I promised to save her and I will. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, remember it, because I won't give up until you cure her."

"Good luck then, Naruto." And with that, Tsunade left with her slightly confused assistant following behind after one last look at the boy.

'He really is cute for his age…Damn it, I really need to stop with this, stupid traitorous mind.' And with that, she left to follow her mentor.

"Kin-chan, I won't give up. I will make her help you, one way or another." Naruto said to himself.

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The next day, Tsunade found herself at yet another bar, this time playing poker at one of the tables. She was losing, as always, but her mind was not on the game. She had a lot of things on her mind from yesterday. Uzumaki Naruto…that had been the other thing that Jiraiya had talked to her about. He had asked that if she met a boy by this name that she tell him about it. She wondered what it was that Jiraiya wanted with a boy that had worked for Orochimaru. She wasn't sure whether she should tell Jiraiya that she had seen him or not. She could not tell if he was good or bad, all that she knew is that he was determined to get her to help his friend. He had not said anything about Jiraiya, so she doubted that he was looking for him, so that meant Jiraiya was looking for Naruto without him knowing it. Just why was Jiraiya looking for him? Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of someone new at the table. She looked at the arrival and noticed a familiar set of black hair and piercing blue eyes.

"Well Tsunade, are you going to help me today or not?" Naruto asked her

"I told you that I am not doing it kid, now get lost."

"I told you that that's not going to happen. However, I happen to know that you love gambling, so I propose a bet over a game of poker. If I win, then you are going to heal Kin-chan."

"Fine, and if I win, then you will leave me the hell alone, got it?"

The cards were dealt out and the hand was played. In the end, it was Naruto who won the hand.

"There, I won, now let's go back to the hotel room so that you can heal Kin-chan."

Tsunade simply stared at him for a while before she pulled out a kunai and threw it at the wall behind her where it imbedded itself beside a strange shadow. The shadow began to move and it took the shape of a black fox.

'A shadow fox? This kid has a lot of surprises, doesn't he?' Tsunade thought to herself.

"Nice try, but I have no reason to uphold my end of the deal when you cheated to win. Using your partner there to spy on my cards is a pretty dirty trick." And with that, Tsunade stood up and left the bar.

'Damn it, she figured it out. Oh well, I will just have to keep trying until she agrees.' Naruto thought to himself.

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A week had passed and it was time for Tsunade to meet with Orochimaru and give him her decision about what she was going to do. The night before, she had met with Jiraiya and had drugged his sake so that he wouldn't interfere; this was her business, not his. She had also not told him about her meeting Naruto. She didn't know why she decided against telling him about the boy, but for some reason, she just felt that he wouldn't want Jiraiya to know about his presence there. The boy was certainly persistent, he had shown up every day that week, always attempting to get her to help his friend. He had just left after another day of attempting to convince her to help his friend when Jiraiya had shown up. Maybe she should have helped out the kid's friend, because she had no idea what would happen to her during her meeting with Orochimaru, there was no telling what he had planned. Oh well, no point in thinking about these things now, she had reached her destination, and there in front of her was Orochimaru.

"Tsunade-hime, I trust that you have made your decision." Orochimaru said.

Tsunade reached out her arms which were glowing with chakra. Orochimaru smirked at his victory, he would soon have the use of his arms once again. However, just as Tsunade's arms were about to touch his, a kunai intercepted them. It was at that point that a white haired man with glasses jumped into the clearing.

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Naruto was wandering around the town looking for Tsunade yet again. He had looked in all of the bars and casinos, but she was nowhere to be found. He began to wonder if she had skipped town again and cursed at the thought. Now he would have to go and search other villages for her again. He began to let loose a string of choice curses when he heard a very loud noise and a plume of dirt in the air. Figuring that Tsunade was probably the only person in this town that could cause destruction like that, he rushed towards the site of the noise.

When Naruto arrived, he was greeted with the site of Tsunade launching attacks at Orochimaru. He noticed that all of the attacks that missed caused a great deal of destruction to the landscape. While Tsunade was not in any trouble at the moment, Naruto could see that she was not landing many blows on Orochimaru. Add to that the fact that Orochimaru was not alone and he felt that if he left things the way they were, Tsunade would not stand a chance. It was at this point that he saw Orochimaru's assistant launching an attack at Tsunade that she was unprepared to dodge. He had to help her, if she died, then there would be no one left who could heal Kin-chan.

Tsunade was surprised to see a wall of shadows blocking the incoming attack from Orochimaru's assistant Kabuto. She turned around to see Naruto walking towards her while the wall began to collapse and take the shape of a fox.

"Ah, Naruto-kun, I figured that you would show up at some point while I searched for Tsunade. Have you come to get revenge for your teammates?" Orochimaru asked.

Naruto was no fool. He knew that at the moment, he would not be able to defeat Orochimaru. He simply needed to help to protect Tsunade. He might be able to fight with Kabuto, if he could keep him occupied, then that would leave Tsunade to fight Orochimaru. He prepared himself to fight when suddenly, Tsunade's assistant came running towards the clearing, and with her was…The white haired pervert from Konoha? Was the pervert after him? He had to be careful around this guy; he didn't know what to think of him yet, whether he was a friend, or a foe.

Orochimaru lightly growled in frustration. This was getting a bit too crowded for his liking. He took a deep breath to calm down; the situation was still under control. He can handle Jiraiya, and once Kabuto had managed to disable Tsunade through her fear of blood, then he would be able to deal with Naruto and Tsunade's assistant. This situation was still under control…

"Well, it looks like we finally found the brat, and it looks like our old associate is here too. This should be a lot of fun, how many of them can I hack with Samehada?" A new voice rung throughout the clearing.

'…You have got to be kidding me, don't tell me that _they're_ here too. I can't handle them like this, what the hell do they want, did they come here to look for me?' Orochimaru thought to himself.

A shark like man with a large sword stepped out into the clearing along with another man. Both of them were wearing black cloaks with flame designs on them.

"Our only concern is with the boy, you are free to kill anyone else that you want. While he is here, we might as well make sure that Orochimaru is eliminated." The shark man's partner told him, before he turned to Naruto and spoke again, "I must admit Naruto, we were rather worried when we were informed that you were reported dead, imagine our joy when we found out that you were still alive. Now, I am afraid that we need you to come with us, you hold inside of you something that our organization wants."

Tsunade had no idea why these people were here, but she did notice the red eyes that the newcomer had. Those eyes were the Sharingan, and from his age, that meant that there was only one person that this could be. Uchiha Itachi, the S-ranked missing nin of Konoha. What did they want with Naruto? Everyone seemed to know Naruto, and they all seemed to be after him too. Just who was this kid?

Naruto didn't know what was going on anymore, who the hell were these people, and what were they saying about him being declared dead? He was confused, but his goal did not change, he had to help protect Tsunade, because she was Kin's only hope.

Jiraiya was worried; they were in some deep shit right now. How could Tsunade not tell him that she had met Naruto? He had been looking for Naruto because he knew that he would be searching for Tsunade, and he had heard through his spy network that the Akatsuki were going after Naruto. A string of curses escaped his mouth; this was not the time for his chakra manipulation to be off thanks to Tsunade's drugging his sake. He doubted that there was any way that this situation could get worse.

"Forced Sleep!" Everyone turned their heads to see a red-haired boy with his head drooping downwards. Sand began to gather around him taking the form of a giant raccoon.

"HAHAHAHA, KILL THE FOX, KILL EVERYONE, KILL KILL KILL!" a maniacal voice rung out over the clearing.

'…Son…of…a…BITCH! Could things possibly get any worse in this situation. I'm stuck against two demon vessels, my two old teammates, and Itachi and Kisame, and lets not forget that I CAN'T USE MY FREAKING ARMS! Not too mention that all of them want me dead. This does not look good.' Orochimaru thought to himself.

"**Hey kid, I hate to break it to you, but you are in one hell of a mess.** **That kid is like you, a jinchiruki. It looks like he has Shukaku in him, although it seems that Shukaku is the one in control right now.**" Kyuubi told Naruto inside his mind.

'He is like me? If I can avoid it, I would really rather not have to hurt someone like me. Ok, so I have to help Tsunade, and if I can, I want to try to keep them from hurting that red-haired kid.' Naruto thought to himself.

"Well, look at our luck Kisame, it seems that the kid with Shukaku in him has joined the party as well, we might as well grab him here and now and get some credit over Deidara and Sasori. Everyone one other then the two boys are expendable." Itachi told his partner.

'I just had to think that it couldn't get any worse. I need to help Tsunade and Naruto. I can't let Akatsuki take Naruto. I can't let them take the kid with Shukaku either, but at the same time, I have to stop him from hurting anyone else. I am going to need a lot of sake if I live through this.' Jiraiya thought to himself.

'I don't know why all of these people are showing up, but I don't want to see Naruto get hurt. I should also help Jiraiya out since I did drug him, I highly doubt he is back to normal yet.' Tsunade thought.

"KILL THEM ALL!" Shukaku's voice could be heard ringing throughout the clearing.

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**A/N:** Well, that's it for now. Who knows when the next chapter will come out, since fight scenes are a pain for me to write, and a six way fight will be hell. I will try to get it done as soon as I can, but no promises. Plus, I have to also work on my other story too, which you all better go read now that you've finished this.

Also, on a small note, for anyone mildly irritated by the English use of the forced sleep technique, I just couldn't find the translation, so tough luck.

Anyways, I don't really feel like writing the next chapter of Naruto and Super OC right now, so you will just have to wait till later for that.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** Well, that was a fun three months, hope you all enjoyed yourselves. What? Stop staring at me like that. Just take a step back; let's not resort to violence…

But in all seriousness, I am sorry for the delay. I was not however fishing for reviews before I continued. For the first month and a half I was busy, and then the next month I was lazy, and then about 2 weeks ago my laptop broke, so I had to wait until I went back home and borrowed my sisters old laptop to do work on, which means you are all lucky that I posted the first portion of this chapter for a preview at another site before my computer broke, else it would have been lost and would have taken even longer. In addition, the lack of many good stories in the Naruto section forced me to start looking into some other sections, lessening my inspiration.

Anyways, I have a few issues to address before the chapter. First off, I am not going to discontinue this story. If, in the worst case scenario, I can no longer write this story, I will search through Authors I would trust with my stories and ask if any of them wanted to pick them up. However, that is a big if, and most likely, I will finish them myself.

Second is a response to a particular unregistered reviewer since I can't send him a response. To the unregistered reviewer **Peter Kim**: I understand what you want out of this story, heck, you left about 4 or 5 reviews just for the last chapter stating what you wanted, but let me explain some logic here. Orochimaru is a bad guy, thus, if Naruto is working for Orochimaru, then that makes Naruto a bad guy too, which would make this a dark/evil Naruto story, and as I have stated countless times before and can't make this point any more clear, THIS IS NOT A DARK/EVIL NARUTO STORY, I AM NOT POINTING THIS OUT ANYMORE! I realize that is what you want out of this story, but I can't make everyone happy. Also, for the record, I have never said anything about the villagers abusing Naruto. I am actually to a degree against that claim in stories. At the most, he has just been ignored, and had things whispered behind his back, nothing more, lest the Sandaime would have been massively pissed off.

And lastly, to anyone who is still leaving reviews when they hit chapter ten about how not all crossovers are bad…I hate you.

Now that that is out of the way, thanks to Johnny G and LD1449 for ideas and jutsu listings, and thanks to those who left opinions over at TFF. Enjoy the long delayed chapter.

**Shadow Fox**

All sides involved in the fight were staring at their opponents, none all that willing to commit to making the first move. It was Shukaku that eventually made the first move as a large wave of sand came towards the area, ready to crush all involved in this mess. Everyone saw the wave of sand coming and move to escape in their own ways. Itachi saw this as an opportunity to try to get things done quickly and get out of this situation.

'While Naruto is busy worrying about the sand wave, I can surprise him and catch him in the Tsukiyomi to take him out quickly, then we just need to knock out the Shukaku kid and take care of Orochimaru.' And with that thought in mind, he disappeared.

Naruto managed to avoid the sand wave, only to find himself standing before one of the strange guys wearing cloaks. His eyes began to trail up his body, heading towards his face.

'Shit' Tsunade thought as she noticed what was about to happen. "Naruto, don't look into his eyes!" She yelled out, hoping that he would be able to react in time. Naruto's eyes continued to trail upwards, not having time to react to Tsunade's warning. Just as their eyes were about to meet, both Naruto and Itachi saw black as a wall of shadows appeared between them. The wall then surrounded Naruto and disappeared into the ground.

'Damn' Itachi thought to himself, 'that didn't work like I had hoped. We were so desperate to capture him when we found out that he was alive that we didn't look into his abilities. Who would have ever guessed that he had met with and gained the cooperation of the shadow fox? Let's see…I am sure that Naruto can't deal with either myself or Kisame, nor can he handle any of the Sannin, so I should deal with him last since he is the one that I will need the least amount of chakra to deal with. Right now, I should probably deal with Orochimaru.' And so Itachi went over to fight Orochimaru.

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Meanwhile, Kisame had decided that he would deal with Shukaku. After dodging the large wave of sand, he charged towards Shukaku with his Samehada ready to strike. As he made his way towards Shukaku, a blast of sand erupted from underneath him and began to incase him inside of it.

"Desert coffin" Shukaku called out as he made the sand began to tighten around his target. He prepared to crush Kisame with the sand, when the sand began to lose its shape and collapse around Kisame's feet.

"My Samehada can absorb chakra, and without the chakra to hold your sand together, you can't control it." Kisame told the demon.

Kisame charged towards Shukaku again while Shukaku shot air bullets out of his mouth towards the fish man. Kisame dodged the air bullets and proceeded cut through one of his arms of sand, followed by a strike to his head with the flat of his blade, knocking him back a few feet and seemingly unconscious. He smirked and left to continue fighting with the other participants in this fight.

He never noticed the smirk on the face of the Shukaku controlled Gaara, or the sphere of sand forming around him.

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Naruto reappeared from the shadows next to Tsunade as the shadows shifted back into the form of Kyo. Tsunade looked at the boy, wondering what approach she should take to this battle. She noticed that Itachi was fighting with Orochimaru, and that the fish man was fighting with the psycho kid, while Orochimaru's assistant was approaching her.

"Shizune, I need you to heal Jiraiya. Naruto, I need you to cover Shizune while she heals Jiraiya. I will deal with Orochimaru's assistant." She told them. Shizune was quick to comply, while Naruto was a bit reluctant to be taking orders from her, but complied none the less, the situation was troublesome enough as is.

Kabuto noticed Shizune heading towards Jiraiya and decided that he needed to stop her before it was too late. He charged towards her, only to be intercepted by a punch from Tsunade, launching him back quit a distance. Kabuto managed to get up, his wounds from Tsunade's punch beginning to heal.

"My, that was quite a punch Tsunade-hime; it is no wonder that you are a sannin. However, in my time with Orochimaru and as a spy in Konoha, I managed to learn of your weakness." Kabuto spoke to her as he proceeded to slash the palm of his hand and fling the blood at Tsunade. As the blood hit her, she began to tremble as her fear of blood kicked in. She collapsed to her knees shaking as Kabuto walked past her, intending to stop Shizune.

As he made his way towards Shizune, a spike of shadows shot out of the ground towards him. He jumped to the side to avoid the shadow spike.

"Naruto-kun, I know all about your abilities too after all of the time that you spent in the Sound village. Do you think that we wouldn't know all about your abilities?" Kabuto told Naruto.

Naruto proceeded to charge towards Kabuto and launch a right-handed punch at his face. Kabuto tilted his head to dodge the punch, but was caught off guard when, without pause, Naruto spun around and delivered a kick to his gut with his right leg. Kabuto threw a punch at Naruto with his right hand in an attempt to get some space between himself and Naruto, but that was exactly what Naruto was waiting for. He caught the punch with his right hand and twisted so the he was behind Kabuto and then forced him towards the ground while he drove his left forearm into elbow of Kabuto's outstretched arm. Naruto could hear the bone snapping as they hit the ground and he pushed off and got to his feet.

Kabuto stood, cradling his right arm as he faced Naruto. Smiling slightly, Kabuto used his supposedly-broken arm to adjust his glasses. Naruto couldn't keep the flash of surprise he felt from showing on his face. 'I just broke that arm!'

"I see that you are surprised Naruto. I must admit that your taijutsu style is indeed impressive, but I happen to be a medic nin, not to mention the fact that I have a healing ability that could almost rival yours. Now, where were we?" Kabuto asked to a shocked Naruto.

Upon seeing Kabuto up and ready to fight again, Naruto fell back into his loose stance and formed a single hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu" Naruto called out as five clones appeared beside him.

"What, only five clones? I am insulted. I know that you can create more then that." Kabuto said in mock anger. He fell back into a defensive stance as the five clones charged towards him. It was difficult to avoid the barrage of attacks since Naruto's taijutsu style had no break in its attacks, but he wasn't considered as strong as "Sharingan Kakashi" for nothing. He continuously evaded the assaults, careful to attack since Naruto focused on countering strikes. He had to look for an opening where he could attack without fear of a counter, and he saw that opportunity arise in one of his assailants. He lashed out and struck the opponent, which promptly popped out of existence, leaving a cloud of smoke behind. He barely had time to smirk at his accomplishment before one of the clones appeared through the cloud of smoke and planted a kick to his chin, launching him up into the air.

'What is this, does he know the primary lotus, or perhaps he has modified it like Sasuke did.' Kabuto thought to himself as he was launched into the air, only to be snapped out of his thoughts as Kyo turned into a shadowed hand and grabbed him in the air, only to launch him back towards the ground, where another of Naruto's clones awaited. The clone dropped on to his back and then pushed chakra out of his hands to launch himself towards Kabuto's falling form. The clone's feet connected with Kabuto's chest, sending him back up into the air. Meanwhile, on the ground, the last two clones had prepared for their role, with one of the clones having used his hands to give the clone running towards him a boost into the air. The airborne clone flipped backwards and brought his downward moving foot into the back of Kabuto, knocking him back down towards the real Naruto, who simply smashed his fist into Kabuto's gut, the force of the punch multiplying due to Kabuto's descent.

"Kage Rendan." Naruto said as Kabuto's form slid off of his fist. He looked down at the battered form of Kabuto only to see a plume of smoke before a log was seen where his body should have been. His eyes widened in realization and he tried to dodge to the side, but could not escape the chakra scalpel that plunged into his left arm.

"Well that's a shame, I was hoping to hit your heart, but you just had to go and dodge, didn't you." Kabuto said in a mocking manner. "I must admit that you are a rather tricky opponent, but you overestimate your skills and underestimate mine."

Kabuto began to make his way towards Naruto, only to be interrupted by a barrage of needles. He turned to the side and saw Shizune ready to attack.

"I thought that you were taking care of the pervert?" Naruto asked her.

"I have done all that I can to help Jiraiya, now all he needs is a bit of time to recover. Besides, you seemed to be in trouble, so I came to help you out." Shizune replied.

"It doesn't matter; I can deal with the two of you on my own." Kabuto said as he charged towards Shizune. Shizune began to quickly form some hand seals and as Kabuto got in front of her, she began to breathe out poisonous gas. Kabuto had planned to jump back to avoid the cloud of poisonous gas, but found himself unable to move. He looked down to see the shadows pooled around his feet, holding his legs to the ground. He was about to try to use his arms to find a way to escape, but he soon found his right arm trapped with a chain wrapped around it. He looked over to see Naruto holding his chain whip with his right hand, holding on as hard as he could.

Only having access to one arm made escaping the poison cloud take longer then he had expected, causing him to breathe in far more poison then he would have liked. He needed some time to get the poison out of his system. He made his way out of the poisonous cloud, only to be met by a hand that sent a jolt through his body. He looked up and saw Tsunade standing before him, who had the blood cleaned off of her by Jiraiya. He tried to move to get some distance between them, but when he tried to jump back, his arms shot out. Tsunade's technique had somehow screwed with his muscles, causing this reaction. He struggled to avoid Tsunade's attacks while he figured out how to move in his condition. The situation was turning out badly for him, and he was relieved when he heard Orochimaru calling for him. He quickly broke away from the fight he was in and rushed to Orochimaru's side.

"Shizune, take care of Naruto's arm." Tsunade commanded her student as she rushed of towards the battle again. Shizune began to examine Naruto's injury and saw that the muscle had been cut between his shoulder and his shoulder blade.

"I need you to take your shirt off so that I can properly see the damaged area." Shizune said with a hint of red on her cheeks. Naruto then proceeded to pull his shirt over his head and turned around so that Shizune could see the damaged area. While she examined his wound, he decided to try and make some kind of conversation, and decided that the easiest conversation to have at the moment would be about her battle skills.

"Wow, needles, poison gas, you can get just about anything in your mouth, can't you?" Naruto proclaimed with a smile.

Shizune thought about that sentence, then thought about it some more, and then proceeded to blush furiously at the thoughts in her mind.

'Bad Shizune, bad naughty Shizune, no thoughts like that in the middle of battle.' She thought to herself. She thanked him for complementing her skills and then proceeded to reattach the muscle that had been cut.

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Orochimaru was not happy. This situation was not going the way he had planned. Hell, who could plan for any of this? And now, Itachi decided to go after him first, and let's not forget the fact that he couldn't use his arms. There was no way that this situation could get any worse.

"Orochimaru, you knew that this day was coming ever since you left the Akatsuki. Are you ready?" Itachi asked him, his voice holding no emotion whatsoever.

"kukuku, Itachi, do you really think that you are going to kill me today." Orochimaru responded with confidence, although deep down, he was actually worried for his life.

'Ok, think Orochimaru, you can't use your arms, so how are you going to fight?' Orochimaru thought to himself. 'I don't want to summon yet so that I can save that as a trump card, so what other choices do I have?'

In Orochimaru's thoughts, a little chibi Orochimaru appeared across from a chibi Itachi. The tiny Orochimaru walked over to the tiny Itachi and kicked him in the shin. Itachi then proceeded to cover him in black flames.

'Well, so much for that idea.' He thought to himself. He then saw the tiny Orochimaru attack Itachi with his tongue. The tiny Itachi then proceed to relentlessly beat on the tiny Orochimaru until he was left in a smoking heap on the ground.

'Ok, so kicking and attacking with my tongue are probably not the best ideas for this situation; I guess that just leaves Kusanagi.' And so Orochimaru brought the Kusanagi out so that the blade stuck out of his mouth.

"Hmm, using the Kusanagi already? Do you already have so few options that you are resorting to that."

"Hmph, it's all that I need to deal with you." Orochimaru responded. It wasn't entirely a lie; even Itachi wouldn't be able to handle the sword's poison. Itachi was no medic nin, and he highly doubted that Tsunade would feel any need to heal Itachi.

'I just have to time this right.' Orochimaru thought as he lunged towards Itachi, sword poised to strike.

Itachi dodged the strike easily, as it was fairly simple to predict his movements, because how many strikes can you attempt using you head? However, it confused Itachi that Orochimaru didn't stop after his missed strike, he just kept going.

'Damn it, that coward is trying to run away.' Itachi performed a quick shunshin jutsu and ended up in front of Orochimaru, only to have to jump to the side as he stuck the sword out for another strike. When Itachi dodged, Orochimaru still kept running to get away.

'Time for a different approach.' Itachi thought to himself as he began to form some hand seals. Multiple small fireballs came out of his mouth and formed a wall or fire in front or Orochimaru, cutting off his escape. Orochimaru's first instinct was to use a suiton jutsu to make a path through the flames for himself, but as he attempted to do just that, his arms remained limp at his sides.

'Damn it, I really miss using my arms.' Orochimaru thought to himself. He turned to face Itachi, but he was nowhere to be seen. However, he felt the kick that landed on the side of his head and sent him tumbling across the clearing. 'That…really hurt. Looks like I will have to pull out my trump card.'

"Kabuto, get over here!" Orochimaru yelled out. Kabuto soon appeared at his side. "I need to use the summoning jutsu." And with that, Orochimaru proceeded to bite his lip to draw blood while Kabuto reached for that blood and smeared it on some seals on Orochimaru's arms.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Orochimaru called out. What he wasn't expecting, however, was for the two simultaneous calls of the same jutsu. When all of the smoke cleared from the clearing, he was standing atop Manda, staring across at both Gamabunta and Katsuyu.

As soon as they had been summoned, Manda and Gamabunta began complaining.

"Orochimaru, this better be worth my time."

"Damn it Jiraiya, what did you summon me for this time."

Gamabunta and Manda then turned their attentions to each other.

"Ah, it's Manda. This is great; I could use a new snakeskin wallet." Gamabunta proclaimed.

"So, both Katsuyu and Gamabunta are here. Orochimaru, you are going to owe me a large number of sacrifices."

Manda proceeded to dart towards Katsuyu and wrap around her, attempting to squeeze the life out of her, only for Katsuyu to split into many smaller versions of herself to escape. While Manda tried to get into position to prepare for another strike, Gamabunta rammed into Manda from the side.

"Jiraiya, give me a light!" Gamabunta shouted.

Jiraiya formed some hand seals and let out a fireball to light the oil that Gamabunta spit out of his mouth. The flames consumed Manda and they could see the writhing form of Manda collapse in the flames. When the flames cleared, everyone looked out and saw only Manda's shed skin. Manda surprised Gamabunta and rammed into his side, knocking him over and falling towards Shizune and the recently healed Naruto.

'Oh shit, this is bad' Jiraiya thought.

Itachi and Kisame were a bit worried now. They had been staying back and watching the summons fight it out. Neither had summons of their own, so they decided to let them all deal with each other and then finish them off while they were weakened. However, they hadn't planned on Naruto getting caught in the crossfire and in danger of dieing. They both made to move him out of the way, but both knew that they could not make it to him in time. As they watched what would be the end of the person they were charged to capture, Naruto began to do something that they didn't expect. He bit his thumb and formed some hand seals, and then proceeded to slam his hand into the ground.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto called out as he used a small bit of Kyuubi's charka for the summoning. When the cloud of smoke disappeared, Naruto was standing atop Suyoki, the large, solid white leader of the snow fox clan.

'He can summon a demon fox clan too? Damn it, why couldn't I make him my vessel, he is nearly perfect.' Orochimaru thought to himself.

"You've really gotten yourself into a mess this time Naruto. How do you manage to get into these situations?" Suyoki asked Naruto as he pushed Gamabunta back up.

"No time to explain, I just need your help here." Naruto replied as he tried to help Shizune get her balance atop the large fox.

"Obviously." The fox replied. The four summons stared at each other, waiting for another to make a move when a large sound came from the side of the clearing. They all turned to see a large Raccoon dog made of sand cackling psychotically.

"…Shit." Suyoki said.

"Orochimaru…I hate you." Manda quipped.

Itachi sighed, "Kisame, you were careless not to notice his transformation. This battle is getting far too risky. We should leave this battle and wait for a better opportunity to present itself." Kisame agreed and the two of them left while the 5 large creatures stared at their opponents.

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**A/N:** Well, there you go. Initially, I had meant for the whole fight to be one chapter, but it has just been so long since an update that I split it in two. Also, something about this chapter just doesn't feel right to me, but no one over at TFF offered much in the way of criticism or ideas, so I don't know, maybe I am just paranoid.

Also, since one reader once requested that I tell him if I post my art anywhere, to anyone who cares to see it, I have posted a few of my computer art projects on the internet. The address will be put in my profile.

And so, it is now time for The Adventures of Naruto and Super OC!

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Naruto and Super OC, along with a cloaked Itachi and Kisame, who joined them soon after Itachi because they are both partners (because if Itachi is good, then Kisame is also good by default. Besides, we already determined that Orochimaru was really at fault for all of Kisame's crimes, he was just in an undetectable henge.) stood before the gates of Konoha.

"Super OC, remind me why we returned to enter me in the academy when I have been learning so much more on our training trip?" Naruto asked.

"Because, this wouldn't be much of a story if we just spent the whole time training. We came back so that we can have you beat everyone up in a loosely tied, very weak plot." Super OC responded. Before Naruto asked any questions about "The Plot" and managed to bring the author back into the story again, Super OC, Itachi and Kisame made their way into Konoha.

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The next day, Naruto found himself in the academy. The previous day had been spent proving Itachi and Kisame's innocence and having the instated as Konoha ninja. Naruto looked around the class, none of these kids were worth his time, after all, he had enough strength to take on all five kages at once. However, he was still not as strong as Super OC, because Super OC is just like that. A man with a scar on his nose then walked in the door and stood before the class.

"We have a new student today. Naruto, come down here and introduce yourself." The man said.

Naruto made his way to the front of the class, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto…" He said no more, because it is cool to be mysterious and withdrawn like that. He made his way back up to his seat while many girls watched him with hearts in their eyes, none more so then a certain Hyuuga heiress, thus proving that Hinata is really shallow, not caring about his personality at all, merely caring about his looks, because the personality of this Naruto and cannon Naruto have nothing in common, so no argument about personality or determination can apply. Besides, she just met him.

"Ok class, who can tell me what the purpose of being a ninja is?" Iruka asked the class. Iruka saw a hand up in the air and called on that student, "Sasuke."

"To Avenge!" Sasuke shouted.

Iruka sighed, "No Sasuke, the purpose of being a ninja is not to avenge."

"But I am an Avenger, so I must avenge the people that I have sworn to avenge, for if I do not avenge the people I have sworn to avenge, then I can no longer be an avenger, so I must avenge those that I swore to avenge to make me an avenger…avenger." Sasuke replied. Sasuke apparently doesn't have much of a vocabulary past the word "Avenge."

Iruka just sighed again, "Anyone else…Sakura?"

"To marry Sasuke!" Sakura proclaimed. This is about the extent of her vocabulary.

"No Sakura, I am sure that many of the boys in this class would tell you that their goal is not to marry Sasuke. Now, can anyone answer this question?"

Naruto then stood up and went into a long thirty minute jounin level answer to what is the purpose of being a ninja, because Naruto has also received a great deal of educational training from Super OC and his "mother" Kyuubi.

"Wow, that is a very good answer Naruto."

And so, the class proceeded in a similar manner until the day of the exams.

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Well, that is it for now.


End file.
